F1: The Movie

 

This review may contain spoilers!

F1: The Movie follows Sonny Hayes, a man who chases first place in all major automotive circuits ever since a life-threatening crash from a Formula One race in his youth. When his friend and former rival, Ruben Cervantes, offers him a spot on his Formula One team, Sonny reluctantly agrees.

I was immediately drawn into this racing film. We see Sonny smash through NASCAR like it's the easiest competitive circuit in the world. It is clear Sonny is a prodigy, and there is no doubt in the audience's mind that he could be the answer to Ruben's failing F1 team problems. The film is smart in how it handles introducing Sonny back to F1. He's not a natural winner from the first scene; he crashes, but he shows incredible potential and insight not present in the other members of Ruben's team. The film then spends a lot of time telling us who Sonny is. He physically trains himself for the race, he studies and learns both the car and the track, and he works to build up the other members of the team. One of the big challenges here is the other APX driver: Joshua. Throughout the film, Joshua is resistant to Sonny, disobeying him and insulting him, which eventually leads to the extreme of Joshua getting into a life-threatening crash. The pair then build back up, Sonny especially learning how to become a natural teammate to someone with a lot of talent but who needs to develop respect. This film felt like a very traditional Hero's Journey pathway done right, which will be no surprise to Joseph Kosinski fans post Top Gun: Maverick. I also felt extremely impressed with how immersive this film was. A lot of the racing places you right in the action and makes you feel like the driver behind the wheel.

This film is a technical masterpiece, which is no surprise if you're familiar with Joseph Kosinski as a director. This film uses incredible camera techniques to live-capture real cars positioned within real Formula One races. More than this, the camera work used throughout challenges itself to stay dynamic and is a massive contributor to why this film feels so immersive. The editing present here is some of the strongest this year, piecing shots together in a way that makes the visual storytelling of this film stand out even stronger than the narrative work at play. The soundtrack used throughout is full of comfortable rock and some fresh pop and hip-hop tracks, marking F1 as the trendy forefront of the racing world that it is. I also feel the whole thing being sewn together by a powerful score from Hans Zimmer is well worth noting.

Damson Idris, who played Joshua Pearce, really earnestly plays the young hotshot with an ego bigger than his talent; I appreciated Idris because he really brought Joshua on a journey that humbled the role and lifted him up. Javier Bardem, who played Ruben Cervantes, is entirely charming in this film; I also liked it when Bardem and Pitt got to portray a friendship with some conflict in it. Tobias Menzies, who played Peter Banning, was an oddball left-field antagonist role that I quite liked; Menzies has a couple of insanely good scenes where it feels like he is satirising Elon Musk. Kim Bodnia, who played Kaspar Smolinski, is a character I enjoyed seeing become increasingly frustrated by Pitt's lead; yet Bodnia also quietly built his character's camaraderie with Sonny up too, which worked well. Sarah Niles, who played Bernadette, really grounds Idris' role morally; I enjoyed seeing Niles play a sort of conscience while also having to reach the point of being a distraught mother in this film. Will Merrick and Joseph Balderrama, who played Nickleby and Fazio respectively, are a fun ensemble to the APX race team; I enjoyed the fast banter that adds a bit of levity to the racing or team briefing scenes. Shea Whigham, who played Chip Hart, gives a strong start to the film; this is a character who feels like a seasoned pro really passing grudging respect to Pitt's Sonny.

However, the best performance came from Brad Pitt, who played Sonny Hayes. At this point in his career, Pitt is picking roles and scripts that really excite him or allow him to stretch his legs. Hayes has that classic 'chip on his shoulder' aspect that Pitt tends to gravitate towards, which results in a nice storyline around living a life post-severe injury. I really felt this character had a gruff yet charming front, while holding deep personal fear behind closed doors. I liked that Pitt's role could be very aloof in one scene, while nothing but hard edges in the next. Yet across all of it, we saw a character with almost superhuman drive and willpower, someone who became self-sacrificing to win. I remember when the latest Mission: Impossible came out, people said Tom Cruise was the last true movie star, but I feel a similar affinity for Brad Pitt.

I think that at the core of this film, the thing holding it back from being an absolute knockout piece of cinema is how safe the story can be at times. I often felt it took the path most travelled, especially early in the film, with Joshua being a punk rival to Sonny. It felt like their antagonistic start could have had more of an edge to it. The ending also felt very cheesy, bringing Sonny back down from all of his development and reducing the feeling I had been sitting with after the big final race. Perhaps most annoying was the really poor romance subplot. The absolute lack of chemistry between Sonny and Kate is unbearable, yet the movie keeps pushing it up the hill. This is a love story that feels like it was mandated to be in the feature; there's no real love in it whatsoever.

Kerry Condon, who played Kate McKenna, just feels like she struggles to make herself be heard or stand out in this; I also really felt like there was no romantic chemistry whatsoever between Condon and Pitt. Abdul Salis, who played Dodge, was a character who really struggled to make himself known; I felt like Salis made little connection on set as his role paired well with nobody. Callie Cooke, who played Jodie, is a character who constantly fails and goes through growth we never really see; I expected more from Cooke and felt this character might have been interesting with some proper screen time. Samson Kayo, who played Cash, is a staggeringly annoying performance; Kayo gives a superficial and easy-going performance that makes him feel like the laziest we get.

Between Joseph Kosinski's ability to weave a visually superior film and Brad Pitt's knockout performance, this is certainly a must-watch on the big screen. I would give F1: The Movie an 8/10.