‘F1' movie review: Slick, sexy Brad Pitt film is an aspirational racing fantasy story

Yahoo

5 hours ago

Brad Pitt is bringing back the summer blockbuster excitement with F1: The Movie, directed by Joseph Kosinski, co-written by Kosinski and Ehren Kruger. Also starring Damson Idris, Javier Bardem, Tobias Menzies and Kerry Condon, it's a movie that really strives to evoke the thrill of racing.
With famed driver Lewis Hamilton both featured in the film and serving as a producer, he promised that this would be 'the most authentic racing film you will ever experience." The F1 racing scenes make you feel completely immersed, both from the perspectives of the drivers and from a trackside view, resulting in a particularly exhilarating movie.
F1: The Movie release date: June 27Cast: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Javier Bardem, Tobias Menzies, Kerry Condon, Sarah Niles, Callie Cooke, Kim Bodnia Director: Joseph KosinskiWriters: Joseph Kosinski & Ehren KrugerRuntime: 155 minutes
Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, whose Formula One days ended 30 years ago after a serious accident in Spain.
But he gets an unexpected visit from an old racing friend Ruben (Bardem), who's now the owner of a struggling F1 team, APXGP, and wants to bring Sonny on as a second driver, alongside the team's superstar rookie Joshua Pearce (Idris).
Sonny is hesitant, but ultimately decides to join the team, facing an initial clash with his teammate as 'old school' and 'new school' racing collide, particularly as Joshua has joined the profession at a time when getting engagement on social media is seen as a critical element of the job.
Working on the team is Kate (Condon), who's the first and only woman to hold the position of technical director for a Formula 1 team. A talented engineer, she's tasked with building the best car to hopefully lead to APXGP crawling up from the back of the ranks.
Ruben is feeling the pressure too, continuing to spend money to hopefully secure the future of the team, with board member Banning (Menzies) frequently watching over his shoulder.
As the story progresses, Sonny starts to fall in love with the sport again and a camaraderie is built between him and Joshua, as they both work to see APXGP win a race.
This is a movie that lives or dies by its race scenes, and for a number of reasons. Firstly, the entire plot is structured by the races. Secondly, the team behind the film also got unprecedented access to the Formula One community, with Hamilton leading the way, which comes with a level of expectation for what we see on the big screen.
The race moments deliver. They're extremely tight and thrilling. You really feel like you're in the car with these drivers, or right at the corner of the track when they make a turn. It's mesmerizing and certainly the driving force for the film.
With those elements locked in, the story leaves something to be desired. While there's a love story introduced between Kate and Sonny, it feels forced, like there was some box to check on romance to make a film feel complete, which isn't the case.
Formula One has a history of not being a particularly diverse sport and there's a history of women being undervalued. It's with that foundation that it feels like a particularly disappointment choice to introduce the one and only woman in the APXGP pit crew, Jodie (Callie Cooke), as the person who's floundering, struggling to keep up with the rest of the crew. This just adds to how F1 largely dismisses how engaged women are with the sport.
The general story development for F1 is incredibly predictable. But you can forgive the film because the reality is, you're going to the theatre to see the cinematography from Claudio Miranda, paired with a score by Hans Zimmer, to get sucked into the fantasy of this racing underdog story.
The most important thing about F1 is that it needs to be seen in the movie theatre to get that thrill, otherwise your viewing experience will likely be a bust.