8/10
The sports drama has essentially become one of the backbones of the summer movie season, with at least one released a year. Whether it’s a more spirited attempt at exploring the dramatic components like Luca Guadagnino’s tennis feature, Challengers, or a more straightforward underdog drama more focused on the actual sport, like Neill Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo. Joseph Kosinski’s newest blockbuster, F1, falls more closer to Blomkamp’s sports endeavour, following the basic plot structure that would be expected for this genre. What it doesn’t make up for in originality however, it makes up in execution, the film hits the beats but its hard to argue against the tropes when they are done perfectly.
F1 follows aging driver Sonny Hayes, portrayed by Brad Pitt, whose life went ablaze after crashing in a race during his youth. Bitter and aged, he returns to Formula One racing after thirty years to save his old teammate’s underdog team from failure. With the threat of his old friend being removed from leading the team, a potential love interest amongst the team and butting heads with the young talent, the formerly retired driver has his work cut out for him.
This is Kosinski’s follow-up to his tremendously successful Top Gun: Maverick, a film which is certainly not his breakout hit, but is the film that has definitely put his name on the map. What really stood out about that feature was the direction during the dogfight sequences, with star Tom Cruise making each cast member fly the planes for real, and become confident enough to film themselves doing so in camera. It is the closest we have seen to true dogfights on the big screen, and F1 continues this tradition with star Brad Pitt and race-cars.
The central narrative crux of F1 sees the underdog team racing across nine separate races to move their board position from bottom to hopefully gaining the win. Across these nine races, the film impresses in Kosinski’s dedication to making the races feel authentic as possible. Pitt and his co-stars learned to drive similar F2 cars for safety, allowing a mix of stunt driving and actual driving sequences from the stars.
The sequences are absolutely exhilarating, filled with tension and beautiful shots, showed perfectly in a rain-shot sequence and a breath-taking final one-shot from the perspective of Hayes as the camera follows the track in one massive lap.
Direction is easily the standout of this film, but there is still a lot to enjoy. Brad Pitt puts in an enjoyable lead performance as a suave, mess of a man that he has seemed to master through his years of playing similar characters. His co-star Damson Idris, who is making his big-screen debut here, is perfect for the role of the cocky and egotistical youngster, even if the dynamic between him and lead Brad Pitt seems to be lost sometime when it should be the focus. Javier Bardem makes up for this tenfold however, giving Pitt scenes to bounce off with someone equally as suave.
Kerry Condon serves as the movie’s romantic angle of the film, and she serves a fun, yet cliché part of the film. It is probably the least fleshed-out part of the story, feeling like it is there because it just had to be. The film follows all the cliché quirks these movies follow, the story of a loser becoming a winner, finding romance from a standoffish rival, and then training the next generation to do it after him. It even has the second act low-point where everything goes wrong, and does so twice. These cliches could be a problem to any other film, but when they are delivered in such an earnest and fun way, an audience cannot help but feel entertained. Paired with those racing shots, the film can only leave you wanting more from director Joseph Kosinski.
Rhys Reviews 