F1: The Movie
review by Bobby Blakey
The last few years we have seen a surge of films focusing on real life car creators and racing including Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ford v Ferrari and more. Now Brad Pitt is teaming up with Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski for the film F1 co-starring Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem, Tobias Menzies, Sarah Niles, Kim Bodnia and Samson Kayo. Could this film bring the intense racing action and drama fans hope for or will it fail to cross the finish line?
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F1: The Movie follows Sonny Hayes who was FORMULA 1’s most promising phenom of the 1990s until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, he’s a nomadic racer-for-hire when he’s approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes, owner of a struggling FORMULA 1 team that is on the verge of collapse. Ruben convinces Sonny to come back to FORMULA 1 for one last shot at saving the team and being the best in the world. He’ll drive alongside Joshua Pearce, the team's hotshot rookie intent on setting his own pace. But as the engines roar, Sonny’s past catches up with him and he finds that in FORMULA 1, your teammate is your fiercest competition—and the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.
With an infusion of films like Top Gun, Days of Thunder and a bit of Rocky 4 thrown in while still being very much its own thing. The story is simple and one we have seen numerous times in some form but delivers with the accompaniment of the intense racing scenes and peeks behind the curtain of the race world. It delves into every aspect of the sport making it eye opening for those that don’t follow and pure energetic fun for those hard-core fans.
Brad Pitt is excellent in this role bringing the swagger of a veteran, but still deeper issues and past trauma work through. It doesn’t turn into a drama fueled tearjerker but instead uses the issue as the fuel to push his character
forward to strive for success. Behind the other wheel is Damson Idris who brings the flip side of the industry and all its glitter and glam in the form of a rookie. The dysfunctional relationship of these two pushes them both to the brink but work to make both guys better on and off the track.
The entire cast is great, but these two are the centerpiece to its success and hit the line every time. For this film to work the races must be exciting and they could have just gone the usual filming route but instead took it to the next level filming during actual Grand Prix weekends as the team competes against the titans of the sport. Much like Top Gun: Maverick the cars are equipped with various cameras to bring the audience behind the wheel, and it delivers some of the best racing on film footage ever.
The film goes all in to create a great experience in film the way it was meant to be seen. This is one of those movies that is perfect for and needs to be seen on the biggest and loudest theater you can find.
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Decide for yourself and race to the theater to check out F1: The Movie in theaters now from Apple Original Films and Warner Bros.