Movie Review: F1® The Movie

F1® The Movie establishes its personality right from the opening scene. Taking place at the 24 Hours at Daytona, an endurance race where race teams race for 24 hours, we are introduced to Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who is preparing to take over the driving from his teammate. When Hayes gets behind the wheel, we immediately learn how great a driver he is. He’s aggressive and smart, seamlessly moving past other drivers. Director Joseph Kosinski puts us in the driver’s seat during this scene, with several shots coming from the point of view of inside the car and mixing that with swift editing and impeccable sound. You feel everything that is happening on the track: the tires screeching, the quick turns, the intense driving at dangerously fast speeds. You feel the pressure of being a driver and the heat inside the car. This entire scene is set to Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” and finishes with fireworks and a down-to-the-wire finale. It’s as exciting a beginning to a movie as I have seen all year, and much like the drivers in the film, F1® never slows down.

Following the race at Daytona, we learn that Sonny is a driver-for-hire. He goes from race to race, helping teams win no matter what car he is driving. Before hitting the road to his next race, he is visited by Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), an old friend and competitor from Sonny’s past. Ruben currently owns a Formula 1 team, and the team isn’t doing so well despite having a young and exciting but arrogant driver in Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris). Ruben asks Sonny to join his team and help get them to the next level, or else Ruben will have to sell the team. It doesn’t take much convincing to get Sonny on a plane and join Ruben’s team.

From there, F1® is a classic sports tale about an old veteran teaching a young talent how to be great while also making the team better with his unorthodox moves and charming personality. We learn through several scenes of exposition about Sonny’s past, which includes him getting into a horrific crash when he was younger, derailing all his potential as a racer and leading him to an unstable life of partying and gambling. Pitt is in full movie star mode in F1®, effortlessly exuding charm and a larger-than-life persona, which makes Ruben’s team and us root for him. Pitt turns on the dramatic, comedic, and romantic chops when needed and fully invests in playing a man who loves racing and winning. It’s the kind of performance you expect from one of the biggest stars in the world.

F1® might be the best racing movie ever made. It dives deep into the world of F1 racing and shows us the glitz and glamour while also showing us how dangerous it can be. The film is filled with expensive clothing, cars, jewelry, product placements, and brands from manufacturers like Ferrari and McLaren, and stunning training facilities. We go to races in Japan, Dubai, and Las Vegas, where the drivers hang out at the biggest nightclubs and the nicest hotels. But it doesn’t shy away from how dangerous F1 is. Kosinski created a special lightweight camera to put inside the cars so that we can get the full experience of racing. Seeing how fast the racers drive and their quick reaction time to any turn or debris on the track will have your heart racing. We also see several life-threatening accidents where cars catch on fire or crash into hundreds of pieces. These sequences are authentic and intense and make for some of the best action scenes of the year.

F1® The Movie is a perfect summer movie. That doesn’t mean it’s a perfect movie, but it’s a perfect movie to see on the sweltering summer days with a large bucket of popcorn. It’s a big, loud, glossy, expensive, rousing film led by a movie star that’s got action, comedy, romance, and great, immersive racing. What more could you want from a summer movie?

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