F1 Review: I Feel the Need for Speed, Again

by Ken Jones

The creative minds behind Top Gun: Maverick (producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Joseph Kosinski, and writer Ehren Kruger) have joined forces once again for another blockbuster with fast vehicles, but this time it’s on land rather than in the air, and it stars Brad Pitt instead of Tom Cruise. F1 is pure, crowd-pleasing summer action.

Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) is the greatest racer who never was. Once a hotshot phenom on the Formula 1 circuit, he lost his nerve after a horrific crash and faded into obscurity. He is pulled out of that obscurity by an old friend, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), to be a part of his floundering F1 team and to mentor a young up-and-coming driver, Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris). Hayes reluctantly joins the team, battling his body, his teammate, and some demons for one last shot at elusive glory.

While NASCAR has always been popular in the United States, Formula 1 racing has experienced something of a boom in popularity in the last few years. I believe this is due, at least in part, to the behind-the-scenes exposure of the drivers on docuseries on Netflix and other streamers. Formula 1 was heavily involved in the making of this movie.

Personally, I’ve never been much of a racing fan, just not my thing, but a good racing film can make for very compelling action and drama, and F1 really delivers in the racing category. The film does a tremendous job of making each race distinct and showing the strategy that goes into the competition. Before each race, the teams sit down and discuss strategy for the track, led by technical director Kate McKenna (the criminally underrated Kerry Condon).

Sonny joins the team on the back half of the season, with nine races left to go. Ruben, heavily in debt, stands to lose his team unless they turn things around. While this movie is a crowd-pleaser of a blockbuster, it’s also not unrealistic in the journey of the team; they’re not going to conquer the sport. There is, however, plenty of room for competitive growth and success in individual races, even if an overall title is out of reach.

There have been many movies about main characters past their prime. It’s a feel-good story whenever an aging athlete turns back the clock and delivers a “vintage” performance, battling their opponents and Father Time to try to win. Every athlete is fighting against their own personal “dying of the light.” Many of those characters have also mentored younger characters; think of Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins in Bull Durham.

There is undoubtedly some similar DNA in this film to Top Gun: Maverick; Sonny could easily have a nickname like “Maverick” given his personality, attitude, and reputation, but he is also similar to Maverick in the pure love he has for what he does. Also similar to Top Gun: Maverick, this movie made me think of an earlier Tom Cruise movie, The Color of Money, and the Fast Eddie Felson character portrayed by Paul Newman.

Pitt and Newman were both bona fide movie stars who had a certain charisma, cool, and ease on screen that they exuded. Pitt brings that charisma in spades with Sonny, who has toiled away in obscurity for decades, not because of his lack of skill, but his love for the purity of the sport, and getting to a place where it wasn’t about the money for him, but being behind the wheel.

It’s refreshing that Idris’ Joshua isn’t a punk, cocky kid who doesn’t know what he’s doing. He has moments of being arrogant and cocky, but, if anything, those moments are him trying to be something he is told he should be instead of who he is. Despite being at loggerheads through much of the movie, Joshua and Sonny see the talent behind each other’s egos. This could also be a vehicle for grooming someone like Damson Idris to be a bigger star, getting to co-star in a big blockbuster like this opposite the established star Brad Pitt.

I enjoyed the fact that Sonny spends most of the movie being the racing equivalent of a junkball pitcher in baseball who doesn’t have his fastball anymore or the old head playing a pickup game at the gym relying on his tricks to stay on the court with the younger guys. Sonny pulls out all the tricks he can think of that are legal to get a competitive edge in the races, gumming up the works in a few ways to help the overall team in the process. And in future races, when other racing teams catch on to their strategy, then it’s time to pivot to something else.

Is the plot somewhat predictable? Yes. Is there an inevitable romantic angle between Pitt’s over-the-hill driver and Condon’s female technical director? Of course. But there is also an undeniable charm to everything that elevates the movie. And it’s a thrilling theater experience, so you should try to catch it on the big screen. F1 is a throwback to summer blockbusters that gives the audience an exciting ride.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars