“F1: The Movie” takes viewers inside the exciting world of Formula One auto-racing. The director is Joseph Kosinski, best known for taking “Top Gun: Maverick” to the top of the yearly box office three years ago. Between that movie’s jets and this movie’s cars, it seems the man’s specialty is directing movies about things that go “whoosh.” And yes, this movie is best enjoyed in premium-format theaters (for me it was a Dolby) that can really give the audience a good taste of the whooshing. That is to say I got maximum enjoyment out of the whooshing cars and very little enjoyment out of everything else.
Brad Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a former Formula One driver whose career ended in a crash in the 90’s. Now he’s broke and lives out of his van, taking on freelance driving jobs whenever someone needs him in a pinch. As it happens, former rival-turned-friend Ruben (Javier Bardem), now a team owner, needs a driver in a pinch. His team hasn’t gotten a single top-ten finish all season and is in danger of being sold. Rookie driver Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) has a lot of potential, but he’s consistently being bested by more experienced drivers. It takes some arm-twisting, but Sonny agrees to come aboard as Joshua’s teammate.
Sonny doesn’t fit in well at first. Most of team is European, he’s American. They’re up on the “current” Formula One, he’s been out of the game for 30 years. They’re high-strung, he’s easygoing, etc. He especially ruffles the feathers of Joshua, who sees him as a threat to his spot on the team, as well as lead engineer Kate (Kerry Condon), who thinks he isn’t cooperative with those who know better. Of course, by the end of the film, he’ll be these characters’ mentor and lover, obviously respectively.
How does Sonny win everybody over? By racing, of course. He has instincts that the others don’t, and is willing to try things that others won’t. Sometimes this means unconventional tricks with timing, sometimes this means exploiting loopholes in the rules and flirting with penalties (some will see his tactics as very unsportsmanlike), sometimes this means doing things that are extremely dangerous. But he’s never going to be the best if he plays things safe, and he’s obsessed with being the best.
Whether or not you like “F1: The Movie” comes down to two things: how much you like the Pitt performance and how much you like the racing scenes. To me, they both have the same problem: they’re top-notch at what they do, without impressing me much by doing it. Yes, Pitt is effortlessly charming, but he brings the same effortless charm to every role, and there’s little else to make the character unique. And I don’t just mean he’s not unique for a Brad Pitt character, I mean he’s not unique for this style of movie hero. I really felt like I was watching Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick,” maybe with a shade less dedication to the craft because I don’t think Pitt is putting his body through the wringer for all these racing scenes.
As for the racing, much like Pitt’s charisma, I certainly can’t call it incompetent. I’m sure they got everything right in painstaking, extremely difficult detail. But also like Pitt’s charisma, the film thinks its ability to nail Formula One driving carries it to greatness and it just doesn’t. In just the past few years, “Ford v Ferreri” and “Gran Turismo” gave me equally exciting racing sequences, and both had better stories to go around them. So I’ll put it this way: if you’ve gone a long time without seeing a Brad Pitt movie, a racing movie, or a “Top Gun” movie, and you’re willing to give this movie premium-format prices and over two and a half hours of your time, then you might get something out of “F1: The Movie.” Otherwise, steer clear of this one.
Grade: C-
“F1: The Movie” is rated PG-13 for strong language, and action. Its running time is 155 minutes.
Robert R. Garver is a graduate of the Cinema Studies program at New York University. His weekly movie reviews have been published since 2006.
Last Update: Jun 30, 2025 9:57 am CDT
