A lot of nonsense has been spouted in recent years about the supposed death, or near death, of the genuine movie star. When “Top Gun: Maverick” came out, Tom Cruise was routinely referred to in the press as the last of his kind.
Now we have “F1: The Movie,” the propulsive Formula One racing car Imax extravaganza starring Brad Pitt, a movie star if ever there was one. What’s more, it was written, directed, and co-produced by the same team that brought you “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Let’s be clear: As long as there are movies, there will always be movie stars.
Why We Wrote This
“F1” is different from other racing films: Its big-screen technology changes the viewer experience. But what keeps the film grounded, our reviewer says, is having a major movie star in the driver’s seat.
In many ways, “F1” is a thinly disguised revamping of “Maverick.” It plays out a similar storyline: An over-the-hill bad boy warrior seeks redemption while battling a cocky younger rival – in this case, Damson Idris’ Joshua Pearce. The lead actors even perform their own stunts, driving their souped-up racing cars at speeds approaching 200 mph. Take that, Tom Cruise!
Pitt’s Sonny Hayes was a top racing prospect in his youth until a serious accident in the 1993 Spanish Grand Prix sidelined his career. Dubbed “the greatest that never was,” he quit racing, gambled, caroused, burned through several divorces, drove a New York taxi, and now lives in a van. He has returned to the sport as a racer-for-hire but has no ambitions beyond a quick fix behind the wheel. He doesn’t care about money or glory.
But he does care – about the glory at least – or there wouldn’t be a movie. He initially bristles when Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) – an old friend and fellow driver who now owns a last place Formula One team – implores him to join the squad. Ruben says his company is about to collapse unless it can cop a big win, and Sonny is the only one who can make that happen. It’s a pitch that Sonny, of course, refuses. Until he doesn’t.
Knowing where all this is heading doesn’t really detract from the film’s vroom appeal. Sonny and Joshua may bicker and backbite, but, on the track, in their shiny silver-and-white suits, they resemble demigods. (I half expected someone on the team to call out, “May the g-force be with you.”)
Director Joseph Kosinski and his screenwriter Ehren Kruger are smart enough to recognize that the film’s plot and subplots – including a smarmy corporate investor (Tobias Menzies) and the team’s technical director/love interest (Kerry Condon) – are essentially filler. Their stated aim was to make the most authentic racing car movie ever made and, from a purely technical standpoint, they’ve succeeded.
Movie engineering know-how has greatly advanced since the days of, say, “Grand Prix,” or “Days of Thunder” (which, like this film, was also co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer). Even “Ford v Ferrari” and “Ferrari,” of more recent vintage, don’t quite galvanize the way “F1” does at its best. But, as exciting technically as it is on the track, “F1” itself resembles a piece of technology. Thrill-by-thrill, it’s tooled to capture our attention in much the same way that an eye-popping video game does. After a while, even the racing scenes blur together. That’s largely because there’s not much lyricism in all that whizzing. There’s a wonderful moment when Sonny opens up about the bliss he feels when he’s driving at his peak. If more of that elation had been conveyed in the racing footage, “F1” might have soared instead of vroomed.
What finally holds all the hokum together is Pitt. Even though the movie keeps ramming home the idea that Formula One racing is a team sport, Sonny’s outlaw vibe is clearly its focus. Idris is a quicksilver performer, but Pitt – in films like “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and “Moneyball” and even the misbegotten “Babylon” – has perfected a kind of studly world-weariness that wipes everybody else off the screen. He’s that relative rarity – a great big movie star who can also really act. And no, he is not the last of his kind. But right now he is probably its best exemplar.
Peter Rainer is the Monitor’s film critic. “F1: The Movie” is rated PG-13 for strong language, and action.
