Shiny, exhilarating and fuelled with both adrenaline and hope, F1: The Movie is a love letter to the fast-paced world of Formula One. It might follow the story beats we’ve come to expect of sports movies in familiar fashion, but it navigates the turns of each Grand Prix with enough precision that it’s thrilling to be along for the ride.
Director Joseph Kosinski’s follow-up to the 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, F1 follows washout driver Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who is drifting through the latter stages of both his life and career. He’s tempted back to the grid by Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), a former teammate-turned-team owner, who requires a lifeline in the form of a new driver. Next to fellow racer Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris, in his first blockbuster-starring role) and team engineer Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), Hayes attempts to make a late-stage comeback while navigating new rivalries, egos and his own past.
Pitt brings a familiar, easy charisma to Hayes — a man who has seen and experienced more than he can relate in words. On the other hand, Idris as a young, brash Pierce is trying simply to prove himself, and if their Apex team can’t win even a single race the rest of the season, he might never get another shot. When they share the screen — which isn’t often — their characters shine as the relationship slowly builds from conflict to acceptance. Condon’s McKenna has a lot to do with helping that evolution along; she gets her own underdog story as the first lead female engineer of an F1 team, even if that isn’t explored beyond a few sentences.
If you’re a novice to the world of Formula One, then fear not: the story has largely been crafted for the casual viewer. Screenwriter Ehren Kruger has ensured that no matter your proficiency with hard or soft tires, you will understand more than enough to root for the strategies of Team Apex by the time we get to the climactic race, all the way to the checkered flag.
However, the film’s biggest star isn’t a single person, but instead the sport itself, which will likely endear it to both the hardcore F1 fan and casual viewer alike. The high-octane races wisely put the viewer right in the thick of the action. Cameras are trained on faces during harrowing sequences, as Pitt and Idris emote solely with their eyes. More cameras are attached to every part of these multi-million-dollar feats of engineering, including strapping them right to the front of the cars themselves as they make turn after turn at iconic locales such as Daytona, Silverstone and the Vegas Strip. Kosinski & Co., did it with supersonic fighter planes in Top Gun: Maverick, so why not with finely-tuned F1 machines?
There are some fun cameos as well. For the initiated, you’ll see numerous drivers including Lewis Hamilton (credited as a producer), Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and others, while Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff also makes an appearance. Given that this film was created in collaboration with the FIA itself, the cameos come fast and furious, especially towards the end.
We already know from the outset that F1: The Movie can only end a few ways — the underdog sports movie path is well-trodden, and Kosinski makes no attempt to reinvent the wheel. But even if the journeys for both Hayes and Pierce are ones we’ve been on before, the power and precision of the grid make it a fun, action-packed watch as they cross the finish line.
from Sportsnet.ca
via i9bet
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