Brad Pitt takes the wheel of rip-roaring motorsports drama
Damson Idris & Brad Pitt play racetrack teammates in ‘F1.’
F1® The Movie
Starring Brad Pitt, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem and Damson Idris
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
Rated PG-13
In theaters Friday, June 27
What has four wheels and flies? It’s Brad Pitt as a pro race driver, flying around international Grand Prix tracks at 200 miles per hour in in this revved-up, rip-roaring, grandly orchestrated gearhead motorsports drama. He stars as Sonny Hayes, a veteran wheelman whose career was derailed decades ago, now onboard and back in the game once again.
Oscar-winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) is a F1 franchise owner—and a former racing colleague of Sonny’s—who convinces his old teammate, now living as a nomad in his van, to rejoin him. He wants Sonny’s behind-the-wheel skills to help energize his elite team, struggling to stay in the high-stakes, big-money global competition.
Irish actress Kerry Condon (Better Call Saul, The Banshees of Inisherin) plays Kate, the team’s ace technical director, designing an array of aerodynamic racing do-daddery—that is, when she’s not swooning over Sonny. Damson Idris (FX’s Snowfall) is the young media-star rookie, Joshua, who initially dismisses Sonny as a reckless, washed-up has-been.
Can the hotshot come to see the veteran as a friend, a mentor and a teammate, instead of a cocky, risk-taking intruder? Stick around and find out.
It’s all big, loud, shiny and expensive looking, rumored to have cost some $300 million to make, with $30 million going to Pitt—the loftiest upfront payday he’s ever received for a film. And the camera makes the most of his high-paid, high-wattage star power. There’s no question about who’s in the driver’s seat here—it’s the two-time winner of People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” designation, an actor who, at 61, certainly still knows how to light up a closeup. And it’s no surprise we get at least one good look at his still-toned abs.
If sometimes its style and rhythms feel like Top Gun on a racetrack, with combative cars instead of fighter jets, that’s probably because director Joseph Kosinski also directed that film’s 2022 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick. Sonny flies into the danger zone, much like Tom Cruise did, but keeps things a lot closer to the ground.
The movie immerses viewers in pro racing, putting you “in the cockpit” with drivers as they’re blasting through tight turns, tearing down straightaways and weaving through crowded packs of other vehicles. Cars were fitted with up to 15 separate camera mounts to capture the whooshing wowza action from every angle. We’re alongside hustle-bustle pit crews as they make repairs in mere seconds. We learn a lot about tires, and why they need changing so often. (I don’t remember any other movie, in fact, where tires become such a plot point.) We see some spectacular crashes and realize the constant danger. We watch Sonny slip a playing card into his race suit, just for luck, before each start. And everything is scored to a dramatic, sweeping soundtrack by Oscar-winning German mega-composer Hans Zimmer, with tuneful assists by Chris Stapleton, Led Zeppelin, Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat and others.
It all comes down to a big final Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, elevating the breathless excitement and the tension with each lap in the capital city of the United Arabic Emirates. Will Sonny’s car hold together? Can Josh make it across the finish line without a smashup? Will all those Arabian dignitaries get oil stains on their white throbes?
At one point, Sonny talks about why he loves to drive, the transcendental Zen-like moments when speed becomes almost a drug, getting him high. For moviegoers with a “need for speed” and seeking a summertime cinematic high, F1 will certainly give you that—and maybe a little whiplash. So, harness up, grab a helmet, and hang on. And maybe tuck a playing card in your pants pocket, just for luck.
—Neil Pond
The Media Tourist 