Movie Review: F1: The Movie

By John Corrado

In F1: The Movie, director Joseph Kosinski aims to do for race car drivers and Brad Pitt what his 2022 legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick did for fighter pilots and Tom Cruise, and he delivers another crowd-pleasing summer blockbuster.

Kosinski’s latest is once again an example of adrenaline-fuelled filmmaking. If Maverick was designed to make us feel like we were up in the air with the pilots, the main goal of F1 is to make us feel like we are on the racetrack with the drivers, which is the film’s biggest selling point as a theatrical experience.

The racing scenes here are incredible, shot by Top Gun: Maverick cinematographer Claudio Miranda. But, if the set-pieces are the main attraction, Kosinski wisely ties them together with likeable characters and a gripping, movie star performance from Pitt, who stars in the film as Sonny Hayes, the driver with a rocky past. Pitt oozes charisma in the role.

Like Cruise’s Maverick, Pitt’s Sonny is a bit of a rebel, who is confident enough in his ability to have his own way of doing things. He left racing to make it as a professional gambler, and this translates into his high-risk driving style on the track. Sonny is brought back by his old teammate and rival Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), who brings him onto his failing Formula One team to help coach young driver Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris). Joshua is talented but cocky, and initially clashes with Sonny.

Yes, F1 is a classic tale of the seasoned has-been looking for his comeback getting paired with a young hot shot. But Kosinski proves that there is still plenty of juice left in these sports movie tropes. If the director is developing a brand by this point, it could be described as delivering old school thrills in a technically cutting edge way, which is what he miraculously pulled off in Maverick, and does again here.

The team built special camera rigs to put us in the cars with the drivers, offering an immersive experience. This includes filming at actual Formula One events, and having the actors do their own driving, which adds a sense of realism to the racing scenes. There is a thrill in the way that editor Stephen Mirrione cuts everything together as well, including montages of helmets going on and pit crews getting ready. It’s all about building up excitement and immersing us in every detail of what the drivers are experiencing before, during, and after a race.

A key part of this is also the sound design; not only the steady roar of engines, but everything else we hear as well. This includes race commentary that both adds authenticity and helps more casual viewers understand the technical elements of racing, such as how many laps the drivers can go between changing tires. It’s all mixed together with a steady stream of songs and a thrilling score by Hans Zimmer, that finds the composer embracing techno elements. It adds up to a multi-sensory experience that demands to be seen in a theatre, the bigger and louder, the better.

The film unashamedly taps into the primal thrill of watching cars go fast. But between the racing sequences, Kosinski provides enough drama and character moments to increase the stakes on a more human level (like an impromptu card game or a quiet moment on a balcony). If the story is about Sonny passing the torch to a younger driver, we are also seeing a bit of that onscreen between Pitt and Idris. Pitt is the marquee movie star, but Idris also has major screen presence, and holds his own alongside him.

There is also a romance brewing between Sonny and Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), the team’s technical director, who had to fight to gain her place in the male-dominated field. If the racing scenes are all about the thrill of watching fast cars go ’round a track, the scenes between Pitt and Condon tap into another tried and true cinematic pleasure; the joy of watching good-looking people flirt with each other. The two actors share palpable chemistry together.

If the Maverick comparisons are inevitable due to Kosinski, F1 actually harkens back to another Tom Cruise vehicle; the 1990 film Days of Thunder, which is often described as “Top Gun on wheels” (and even shared the same director in the late Tony Scott). It’s fitting, then, that Kosinski has floated the idea of doing a follow up to F1 that is also a long-in-development legacy sequel to Days of Thunder, bringing Pitt and Cruise together. Wouldn’t that be a thrill.

It doesn’t quite reach the heights of Top Gun: Maverick, which the past few years have been even kinder to in terms of establishing it as a modern classic. The 156 minute running time also does start to be felt after a certain point. But F1 is a piece of solid, technically superior blockbuster filmmaking. It might get dismissed as a “dad movie” by some, but that also suggests a certain durability and rewatchability.

This is the sort of fist-pumping, Americana-infused blockbuster that can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone. It’s what going to the movies on a warm summer day is all about (F1 was produced by Apple, though is thankfully being given a theatrical release by Warner Bros.). As long as Kosinski wants to keep teaming up with big movie stars to deliver these blockbuster thrill rides, theatres will have an excuse to stay in business, and that is a good thing for all of us.