Hollywood lately seems to be in a full-throttle race to cash in on the glitz and glamor of professional motorsports. Apple Films is the latest to catch the racing bug with their entry, F1: The Movie. It stars Brad Pitt doing his best Paul Newman impression as Sonny Hayes, a grizzled, old-school driver looking to return to his roots at the top of the world’s most competitive racing series.
At the helm is writer/director Joseph Kosinski, who previously felt the need for speed with 2022’s flyaway hit Top Gun: Maverick. The first 45 minutes of this film slam the pedal to the metal, powered by another high-octane Hans Zimmer score. Kosinski also benefits from an impressive level of authenticity, no doubt thanks to F1 legend Lewis Hamilton, who serves as one of the film’s producers.
Pitt’s Hayes is complemented by desperate team owner and longtime friend Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), his green rookie teammate Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), and brilliant technical director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon). While everyone aboard does a commendable job, I’d be remiss if I failed to tip my hat to the work of Sarah Niles as Joshua’s ever-present unflappable mom, Bernadette.
The thrills and spills are certainly there, but they’re accompanied by a pit crew full of predictable clichés and underdeveloped subplots. Worst among them is a supposed twist evident from a mile away.
Viewers may feel a nagging sense of déjà vu before realizing that F1: The Movie is nearly a lap-by-lap redux of another Tom Cruise vehicle—1990’s Days of Thunder. And while we’re at it, this film might just set a record for product placement. It only gets away with it because blatant branding is par for the course in professional racing. I half expected to see Sonny tidying up his trailer with a Shark vacuum.
Still, the performances and main story arc are just compelling enough to keep this from being a total washout. While it doesn’t quite reach the emotional depth or storytelling finesse of Ron Howard’s 2013 racing biopic Rush, F1 provides enough entertainment to cross the finish line in style.
