‘F1’ Review

You can easily be forgiven for mistaking ‘F1’, the new sports drama from director Joseph Kosinski, for a Formula 1 commercial masquerading as a feature film. In many ways, Kosinski’s latest film does for F1 what his previous, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ did for the US Navy: glamorizing the dedication, skill and lifestyles of these worlds. ‘F1’ is riddled with sports movie cliches and unimaginative characters; but what it lacks in original human drama it more than makes up for with hot, nasty, bad ass speed.

‘F1’ follows Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a loner race car driver who left F1 racing behind after a grievous injury and instead travels the world in his van, racing any vehicle, anywhere, for any amount of money. Hayes is a renegade, a cowboy, a, dare I say, maverick. When Ruben (Javier Bardem), an old friend desperate for a new driver on his F1 team, approaches him to pair with a promising young rookie (Damson Idris), Hayes finds himself back in the world of F1, trying to save his friend’s team while proving to himself that he still has what it takes to be the best in the world.

Every character is a stereotype, every relationship is something you’ve seen a thousand times, each conversation is filled with inelegant exposition. And yet you’re not coming to ‘F1’ for the character building, you’re here for the racing. And boy howdy do those scenes deliver. Joseph Kosinski has built his career on crafting stunning, visceral action scenes and he delivers beautifully in this film. The roar of the crowd, the sound of the engines, the Hans Zimmer score all come together in a form of perfect, fully adrenalized action filmmaking.

Defining a movie star is difficult work, as it’s not just about acting talent, nor is it solely about box office returns in the era of franchise filmmaking. Yet you know a movie star when you see one, and this movie is full of them. Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Damson Idris and Kerry Condon all ooze charisma, forcing you to forget just how thin the characters are, how lazy the dialog is, how been-there-done-that the relationships are. With a look, a well timed stutter, a facial tic, they elevate the material such that you can’t look away. None of these performances are on their own remarkable, none of them will compete for Oscars, and yet as a whole the cast delivers on the Summer blockbuster promise of beautiful people doing movie star things.

Much has been made of the eye-popping budget of this film and, to be sure, this was a fair cause of concern. There are so many streaming movies these days with bloated, exorbitant budgets that leave you wondering where the money went. Something like Netflix’s ‘Red Notice’ cost $200 million, and yet the resulting film is just a bunch of big name stars standing in front of subpar CGI. Movies like this look terrible, sound terrible, and will disappear from your consciousness as soon as they are over.

Not here. ‘F1’ is a refreshing change, a movie where you see every dollar of its budget on the screen. The cast, the cars, the clothes, the location shooting; every single frame is pure luxury. Shooting at actual F1 races, each location feels authentic and big, with literal fireworks underlining just how unique a film experience ‘F1’ is.

As mentioned, the plot itself, and the characters within, are all very hackneyed. Yet with movie star charm and exhilarating action sequences, ‘F1’ achieves popcorn movie perfection.

F1
Rated PG-13 for strong language, and action.
Running Time: 2 hours and 35 minutes

Director Joseph Kosinski
Writers Ehren Kruger
Stars Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Javier Bardem
Rating PG-13
Running Time 155 Minutes
Genres Action, Drama, Sport