Whatever else can be said about F1, it is a self-evident truth that the summer blockbuster goes somewhere fast. There are plenty of points of narrative propulsion, character interest, and necessary points of conflict built into Ehren Kruger’s script, and Brad Pitt looms on the screen with his five o’clock shadowed handsomeness — five o’clock in terms of both facial hair and age — to keep us pulled into the drama for the film’s 155-minute duration. But let’s be honest: The primary point of the movie is getting from 0-100 plus mph and with daredevil corner navigating that gets the adrenaline going for gamers and ordinary, sedentary citizens alike.
Big-screen super-dynamism is its domain and its objective. Mission accomplished.
It’s surprising that cinema hasn’t embraced car racing more regularly or passionately, given the natural sensory compatibility of the motion picture medium and the literally motion-driven sport. The lineage includes such standout models as the Paul Newman–starring Winning, the Steve McQueen–starring Le Mans, the late local Paul Walker–starring Fast and Furious franchise, and, just recently, 2019’s Ford Vs. Ferrari. With the sleek-yet-sometimes-chaotic visual choreography of F1, brought to you by big budget action peddler producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinski (of Top Gun: Maverick fame) and cinematographer Claudio Miranda’s hyper-kinetic eye, the genre hits a new peak.
If many of its gripping race sequences follow a familiar pattern, the international angle of the Formula 1 circuit allows for a constant change of global scenery, location hopping from the U.K. to Italy to Belgium to Hungary to Japan to Vegas to Abu Dhabi. The location itinerary is worthy of a Bond film. Grounding that peripatetic milieu shifting, though, is a tight dramatic and team-based ensemble continuity. At the heart of the story, we have the aging lone wolf driver Sunny Hayes (Pitt, looking more and more like Robert Redford and with a similar breezy acting aplomb). A former wunderkind racer felled by a bad accident early in his career, Hayes is a cynical and non-committal, but still fiercely talented free agent. He is lured into the APXGP F1 team by his former adversary and ally Ruben Cervantes (played by Javier Bardeen, with his usual elan).
Adding necessary spice and inclusive story angles are the team’s promising Black rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), a source of male in-fighting and ultimately bonding for Hayes, and Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), a rare female race car lead engineer on the team. It’s no spoiler alert to divulge that amorous chemistry has its way within the Sonny/Kate ranks. In the short and long run of the film, Brad pits himself against his foes and his own internal demons, but ultimately achieves a winning strategy, for himself and the team.
By film’s end, which faithfully heeds the triumphant rule of sports film protocol and even features a Rocky theme ripoff in the dense musical pummeling of Hans Zimmer’s score, tensions are resolved and trophies tendered. Our loner hero trades in the glitz of the F1 world for the sandy dunes and hillocks of the Baja 500. (805 shout out: Pismo stands in for Baja.) And voila, all the pieces are in place to make F1 the feel good hit of the summer, high speed division.
F1 is currently on view at a number of Metropolitan Theaters. Click here for schedule.
In addition, F1 is screening in a SBIFF Cinema Society event at the Riviera Theatre on Sunday, August 24, at 5 p.m., followed by a conversation with Director Joseph Kosinski and Producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Click here for details.
View trailer here.
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