Review: “F1”

The racing sequences in F1 are slick and propulsive. That’s evident from the jump, when former F1 star and current fallen-from-grace-racer-for-hire Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) hops into his car at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The quick cuts and the cinematography (with several cameras positioned inside each car granting a first-hand perspective of the race), accented by Hans Zimmer’s pulsing half orchestral, half electronic score, make the sport thrilling and accessible even for someone completely unfamiliar with that world, like me. That shouldn’t come as much surprise; F1, which shot at actual racetracks during the 2023 and 2024 Formula One seasons and contains cameos from a substantial number of the real racers, is a product from the team of the 2022 smash Top Gun: Maverick: director Joseph Kosinski, screenwriter Ehren Kruger, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. But that means that for all its jaw-dropping, death-defying action scenes, F1 shares Top Gun’s faults as well: from a narrative standpoint, it stalls.

For a lot of audiences, that might not really matter. After winning that opening race, Sonny is approached by his old F1 teammate, Rubén Cervantes (Javier Bardem). They immediately rekindle an easy, almost brotherly bond, but that doesn’t mask the fact that Rubén’s in trouble. He now owns the APXGP F1 team, and they keep losing, and he’s deep in debt. If they don’t win any of the season’s remaining Gran Prix races, his investors will pull out. And that’s where Sonny— three decades out of the sport— comes in.

From that point, F1 follows the familiar rise and fall arc that so many underdog sports movies tread. The rebellious Sonny must contend with being catapulted back into the media circus scrutinizing his every move, and a team that makes him play by the rules, all while brushing up against his fellow racer— a hotshot rookie named Joshua Pearce (Damon Idris)— and striking up a possible romance with the team’s technical director, Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon). F1 struggles with these characterizations. The way the film brushes off Joshua in favor of Sonny’s story— particularly when it wraps up the aftermath of a near-tragic accident far too quickly and cleanly— leaves a bad aftertaste. Its female characters, meanwhile, consist of the two most basic archetypes: tough but caring mom (Joshua’s mother, played by the perpetually underutilized Sarah Niles), and smart but hot career gal working in a “man’s” business (the shallow characterization of Kate and the film’s portrayal of women in F1 is something even those involved in the sport in real life, a sport that still sees women underrepresented both behind the wheel and behind the scenes, have called out). It’s a credit to Condon’s sparkling presence that she manages to make something out of the virtually nothing she was given.

But this film is really drawn to Pitt’s magnetism. It leans on it, hard. And Pitt is more than game. As Sonny, he has to walk a fine line: be cocky, but not so insincere as to be unlikeable, thus undermining any investment in him winning. It’s a line that Pitt has been walking in the real world as well, from his Oscar win for Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood moving forward, lending F1 an intriguing layer of meta commentary. In recent years, Pitt has been the subject of accusations of abuse toward his ex-wife Angelina Jolie and their children, and yet, his image rehabilitation tour presses on undeterred (in the press, he’s been more jokey and charismatic than ever). There are allusions to similar, if less disturbingly violent, allegations toward Sonny in the film: his string of ex-wives, his recklessness that puts others at risk, the fact that he does, indeed, have regrets. But the film, like Pitt in reality, fails to interrogate them further. When questioned by a journalist at a press conference, Sonny responds to every increasingly prying query with one-word affirmative responses with an assured coolness that’s clearly intended to endear him to the audience, effectively cloaking past wrongdoing with charisma.

F1, like Top Gun: Maverick, is the sort of summer blockbuster that everyone loves to see: big movie stars, big action, and an accessible (if needlessly drawn-out) story. And Kosinski is a more than competent director when it comes to going full throttle. But the film’s narrative faults are difficult to bypass, even behind the wheel of an incredibly fast car.

F1 is now playing in theaters. Runtime: 155 minutes. Rated PG-13.