F1: The Movie

A movie with the word “Movie” in its title does not often inspire much hope. Most of the time, it’s a way of clarifying that a popular established property is now trying its hand at the feature film thing. Usually, that’s a television show whose makers are trying to cash in on an abundance of success, like Hannah Montana: The Movie. Sometimes, it’s Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer putting together a parody whose lack of imagination extends to the title: Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, etc.

In the case of F1: The Movie, reasonable fears raised are partially offset by three established talents at the core: mega producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Joseph Kosinski, and leading man Brad Pitt. The first two of those filmmakers make this their follow-up collaboration to 2022’s preposterously profitable and highly acclaimed Top Gun: Maverick. And Pitt, whose nearly 40-year body of work is up there with any member of his generation’s, functions as a comforting general seal of approval. Since making it as a star in the mid-1990s, the actor has had remarkably few creative misfires, all of which were soon forgiven and forgotten.

So, yes, while this $200-$300 million Warner Bros.-Apple Original co-production looks like a calculated commercial play destined to cash in on Formula 1’s standing as currently the sixth most lucrative sport in the world, it’s also an actual feature film to be taken seriously and watched without qualification or skepticism. And the subtitle “The Movie” does not even appear in the film itself, just the marketing.

Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) is an aging for-hire race car driver with a long, mixed track record. At the film’s opening, he wins a race and draws a visit from old friend and former colleague Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem). Ruben owns the fictional APXGP (Apex Grand Prix) team and has amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in losses on the Formula 1 circuit. He slides a First Class plane ticket over to his ’90s teammate, extending an open invitation to race for Apex. After his innate reluctance dissipates, Sonny shows up in England to the surprise of Ruben and everyone else. The everyone else includes Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), the team’s young and arrogant principal racer.

Predictably, an intergenerational rivalry forms between the new teammates as their fundamentally different approaches clash. Both are set in their ways and resistant to change. Of course, the only way Apex can turn around their ignominious legacy is for the two to meet in the middle and come up with a way to co-exist.

Narratively, F1 leaves much to be desired. Lone credited screenplay writer Ehren Kruger (The Ring, Top Gun: Maverick, and three Transformers sequels) and Kosinski, with whom Kruger shares story credit, do not unlock rich metaphors, striking personalities, or compelling twists. Joshua and Sonny are basically Lightning McQueen and Doc Hudson and their clashes do not pertain to life at large, just the racetrack. There are a couple of brushes with death, some flashbacks to the ’90s with a digitally de-Aged Pitt, and an obligatory but not particularly believable romance between Sonny and the team’s Irish technical director (Kerry Condon, who at two-thirds Pitt’s age I guess clears Hollywood’s 2025 definition of age-appropriate).

The star attraction here is not the human characters, but the technical side, where Kosinski dazzled the masses on Maverick. He reteams with Chilean cinematographer Claudio Miranda for more dynamism, with the pair again shooting for IMAX. I cannot pretend to begin to understand the appeal of F1 racing, but I imagine that fans of it will be drawn to this film for its ability to put them inside the rapid track action as an ESPN race broadcast cannot. By that measure, F1 succeeds. It looks and sounds great and does a surprisingly stellar job of holding the viewer’s attention for a staggering 2½ hours, even a viewer whose greatest interest in racing to date has been playing the PC games of Cars and The Phantom Menace.

I don’t believe Pitt holds genuine affection for F1; his presence here probably lies in respect for what Kosinski previously did with Pitt’s Interview with the Vampire co-star/fellow A-list lifer Tom Cruise and in the $30 million payday Pitt reportedly took home as leading man. It’s tough to say how much, if any, of the racing Pitt got to do himself without watching a behind-the-scenes documentary. Regardless, the physical demands of the role seem far greater than the mental ones, and the actor’s charisma helps us get through hokey clashes and romcom scenes alike.

There is a long tradition of great movie stars playing race car drivers: Steve McQueen in Le Mans, Al Pacino in Bobby Deerfield, Cruise in Days of Thunder. Nobody cites these films as any of the actors’ best work, but I guess it’s a cool thing to play and doesn’t take much more than expressive eyes and a well-fitting racing suit.