F1: The Movie Review - Racing has rarely ever been so thrilling

Chase Gifford
47 minutes ago
5 min read

“Either push your limits or die.” - Bruce Lee

Joseph Kosinski directed one of the greatest action films of all-time. This allots certain freedoms to do almost anything he wants. Inspired by the ferocity of military jets and the means it required to achieve such astounding footage led to Kosinski and crew placing custom built cameras on Formula 1 race cars and putting Brad Pitt in the cockpit and sending him off like a bat out of hell. Add a plethora of colorful characters, include a loose storyline and you have all the ingredients necessary for one of the most thrilling cinematic experiences of the year.

Maverick on his motorcycle riding parallel to ascending jets at full speed is fun to watch. Seeing him mourn his friend Goose all these years later is heartbreaking. Watching him fall in love with a lost fling is cathartic. It’s all needed for a proper story to play out but it isn’t truly Top Gun until he recklessly pilots a Super Hornet with extreme gusto and a certain kind of finesse. That’s why we watch. The rest is a kind of bonus. The same goes for a movie hyper focused on the intensity of Formula One racing. The rest is a kind of reward.

Rather than being strapped into jets flying impossibly through the sky at unfathomable speeds, imagine flying that same jet three feet off the ground edging turns at nearly 200 mph as highly engineered tires grip the asphalt mere inches from another jet trying to cut off your path all so you can hopefully hoist a trophy above your head. Or a single misstep causing your ultimate demise. I’d argue an early grave is far more likely. So the question follows these drivers every time they sit in their extraordinary race cars: Why are you here? Each driver must answer this question for themselves and if it’s nothing but shallow gains they will never last.

This is, first and foremost, a showcase of what Formula race cars are really capable of doing. The sequences are captured by custom made cameras incorporating elements of iPhone technology allowing high quality imagery set within the constraints of a Formula 1 car. Brad Pitt spent months training for the racing scenes and actually drove in his scenes using modified F2 cars equipped with audio and video allowing for an incredibly immersive experience. Utilizing genuine race tracks across the globe such as Mexico City, Abu Dhabi, and the newly formed track in Las Vegas all stitched together to create its exhilarating sequences. It makes you feel the G-forces, the strain of near ninety degree turns, the coarseness of the asphalt, the pressures of a win or go home operation, billions on the line, the inescapable reality of death waiting around every corner and just beyond every accelerated mile per hour. Like Maverick flying as advanced enemy fighters flank his six, Sonny Hayes practically feels the breath of the driver immediately behind him looking for any excuse to pass him or put him into the wall.

The story and lack of character depth of F1: The Movie is what will keep it from being in the same class as Top Gun: Maverick. It has a flimsy, half-hearted storyline that has been used a thousand times before. The rookie, the inexperienced young buck in dire need of an attitude adjustment and genuine experience. Hired as his second? The attitude adjustment incarnate. He’s the old man, the old school driver with all of the opportunities and skills to seize them and all of it went fully unrealized. Presented with a second chance at becoming the best, if only for one day, old school jumps at the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a Formula 1 driver one last time.

It’s new school vs. old school. It’s a begrudging passing of the torch from a could-have-been to a nothing-yet. It’s light on story, heavy on spectacle. I think for a movie like this, where racing is the draw, a weaker storyline is permissible assuming what we’re here to see is everything it’s been advertised to be. And it is. It absolutely delivers on the thrills as it practically sinks you into your seat absorbing the cinematic gravitational push and pull of a genuine race car topping out at 230 mph.

It’s a clash of egos and the two main characters, Sonny (Pitt) and Joshua (Idris) are ripe with monumental chips on their shoulders and each other’s presence only deepens their resentment. The rookie eventually starts to turn from spoiled child to team player by the end but still retains all of the attitude and self-importance that he had from the very beginning. And for Sonny, Pitt embodies unrealized potential and a reverence for his sport but by the end he doesn’t change all that much. He’s a likeable character but experiences very little development. I would say the worst aspect to all of this is the expected results it inevitably delivers. You expect these people to be giant, walking egomaniacs and they are in just about every way you would think them to be.

Every moment off the track felt like nothing more than a set up for the next time we can get in the cockpit again and fly mere inches above the earth. For all its shortcomings, F1: The Movie more than makes up for it with an embarrassment of riches compiled into some of the most extraordinary racing scenes in the history of movies.

As the cars storm the tracks across the globe, the camera work needed to keep up is phenomenally complex and fully realized for this roller coaster of a film. Alongside such organized chaos is a fully encompassing musical score by Hans Zimmer who as expected delivers one of the best scores of the year.

This is a familiar and slightly overlong storyline wrapped in vintage, heart-pounding race sequences guaranteed to leave your head spinning in a euphoric kind of glee. Brad Pitt is still every bit of the leading man you hope him to be with the aura of the man with no name, striding through, righting wrongs, fixing the past to ensure the future and then simply, moving on. His supporting cast are electric and only embolden the tenacity and vigor of what makes this a thrill ride you won’t soon forget. Rarely leaving the ground, F1: The Movie soars with excitement and technological majesty that much like his aerial counterpart, Kosinski’s follow-up is just as spirited.