Write a commentRacing has never been my thing.
There are multiple people in my family who have tried their hand at racing over the years, so, you'd think I'd have some kind of vested interest in it. That I'd go every so often to support my family members. To a degree, this is true. When my brother raced years ago, I was more actively involved with it than I had been. Problem is, anxiety would get the better of me and I'd spend the entire time worried there'd be some kind of a crash.
When I don't have a family member active in a race, it becomes significantly less interesting to me. While there's obviously skill and talent involved with racing, watching it, to me, is a little bit like watching someone change the batteries to a TV remote. Then again, I've been known to watch four hour Chinese drama films. We all have different definitions of entertainment.
Racing films are different. When races are filmed for TV, they're from several fixed cameras and they're live-edited, like any other sports event. However, with a film, you can get inside the action. Sounds overly simplistic, but it makes the racing that much more engaging. At least for a dope like me.
There are some truly awful racing films (Stallone's Driven comes to mind), but there are some bonafide classics. Days of Thunder may not hold up as far as plot goes, but it's certainly entertaining and, with Tony Scott behind the camera, it's pretty exciting. Remember when The Fast and the Furious was still about racing, not huge magnets and spy nonsense? Those were the days.
F1 concerns Sonny Hayes (Pitt), a racer who seems to be able to drive just about any vehicle. After a devastating crash early in his career, he has played it safe for years. An old friend of Hayes, Rubén Cervantes (Bardem), offers him to race on his F1 team in order to stave off investors selling the team. Sonny agrees.
What follows is a series of races, arguments, tests and general disagreements. If it all seems familiar, you're not alone. Director Kosinski had immense success a few years ago with Top Gun: Maverick. You know, the movie about a guy who everyone thinks is past his prime who comes in to train a bunch of up-and-comers only to end up saving the day himself by the end?
Obviously, Top Gun: Maverick wasn't the first movie to do this, but the fact that F1 feels a lot like a search and replace job with the Top Gun: Maverick script makes it a lot more difficult to throw my full support behind it. At its heart, F1 feels like a movie from the 90s. It's deliberately paced, well-shot and feels like something you don't have to put a lot of thought into. There's no third act twist, all the characters pretty much do what you expect them to and it has your typical Hollywood happy ending. It's cinematic comfort food.
It is impeccably produced. Like the best vehicles, it's nice to look at and mostly all the parts are doing what they're designed to do. Except maybe the screenplay. And, if you're following the analogy, the script should be the engine. What's the point of having something pretty if it doesn't run?
Pitt is reliable in the lead. He's sort of fallen into this Robert Redford mode of showing up in a movie and hoping that his charisma takes him over the finish line. For the most part, this works, but his character here isn't really giving him any acting challenges. Condon and Bardem are both decent as well, but they're overqualified for these roles.
Idris is the standout here. He's able to juggle his character's hubris and humility. But, this character is incredibly similar to Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick. The Maverick/Rooster dynamic is almost a one-for-one with the Hayes/Pearce dynamic. Similar beats, similar results. It's not exactly bad, but, again, for a movie to cost as much as F1 did, you'd think more money would be thrown at the screenplay.
F1 is a vastly entertaining and well-made popcorn movie. The phrase "they don't make them like they used to" could be used in reference to this film. However, this is both a good and a bad thing. Had this movie come out in the 90s, I doubt there'd be so much critical acclaim, it likely wouldn't have been nominated for Best Picture and probably would have been a TNT or TBS staple on weekends. This fact does not mean the film is bad by any stretch.
Thank you for reading. I'm off to find another obscure, overlong foreign drama.
F1 (2025)
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Runtime: 155 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for strong language and action)
Rating (out of ****): ***
"F1" is streaming on AppleTV+ with a subscription. It is also available on all major streaming platforms to rent or buy. Additionally, there is a 4K Blu-Ray.
