‘F1: The Movie’ review: Guys bein’ dudes

Brad Pitt and Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski team up to show fast cars and manly men in the feature-length commercial F1: The Movie.

In the words of renowned philosopher David Hasselhoff, “The male ego is a disease.” Many would have you believe that masculinity is in a crisis this day and age, with the words “alpha” and “beta” being thrown around more frequently than “thank you” and “I’m sorry.” Of course, the issue is more complex and requires expert analysis to determine whether “real” men are in decline or not. But if we’re to judge how masculinity is doing based on F1: The Movie, the fellas seem to be doing just fine.

Even though all these weird new movies have complex emotions, confrontational scenarios, and efforts to challenge human behavior in a modern context, thank heavens we still have flicks where manly men can walk into any situation, do things their way, get the girl and win the day without ever growing or maturing as characters. It’s especially great for the older actors we idolized as kids and teens because if they can still dominate a movie with nothing but wit and ignorance and no new skills, so can we! Are you an emotionally-stunted adult who wishes everyone saw you as the coolest person ever and doesn’t want to accept the changing times? Well here’s the warm, toasty security blanket known as F1: The Movie to make you feel more comfortable. Vroom vroom, boys!

Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) is an aging former Formula 1 driver whose career was cut short after a horrific crash 30 years ago. Now living in a van and popping-up in lesser races for cash, his old pal Ruben (Javier Bardem) approaches him to join the worst Formula 1 team in the world. Ruben asks Sonny to help turn the team’s fortunes around before its board of directors sell it for parts. Sonny’s freewheeling, near-mystical energy clashes with everyone from the team’s top technician Kate (Kerry Condon) to its cocky young driver Joshua (Damson Idris), who’s more interested in proving himself in front of the media than on the racetrack. Sonny now has to teach the young lion and the team how to build (and drive) a car ready for combat, while dealing with the crippling fear that he might not have one more winning lap in him.

All gas, no brakes.

If F1: The Movie proves anything, it’s that Joseph Kosinski is the real deal. The director of Top Gun: Maverick wasn’t just following the gospel of Tom Cruise. He has a clear eye for capturing speed machines and the people who drive them in the most electric ways. Kosinski is great at putting the audience in the driver’s seat, next to, or even in front of the speedsters without resorting to cheap shaky-cam or blatant CGI. He also knows how to mix the intense racing with the pageantry of F1 in lavish locales like Vegas and Abu Dhabi. Every racing scene in F1: The Movie feels damn real thanks to a blending of crisp imagery from Maverick cinematographer Claudio Miranda, precise editing from Stephen Mirrione (Birdman), and a sound department mixing the roar of engines with dialogue and an original soundtrack that’s more dynamic than Hans Zimmer’s score.

F1: The Movie certainly looks expensive, so much so that it actually exposes its hollow heart. For all the speeding cars and handsome actors and energetic needle drops, it doesn’t distract from the fact that this is all just a very pricey commercial for Formula 1 (and Apple tech, this being an Apple Original Film). Not just the racing itself, but the lavish lifestyle of wearing suits covered in corporate sponsors, sipping fine drinks in Gucci suits, and working in all-white training facilities that look fit for building Terminators instead of race cars. Perfect timing with talks of an economic recession lingering in the air, eh?

New model, old parts.

All that money onscreen is keeping the audience’s eyes glazed-over so they don’t notice that they’ve seen this movie before. Kosinski co-wrote the script with Ehren Kruger, who also co-wrote Maverick. That makes a lot of sense considering F1: The Movie follows the exact same plot structure as the Top Gun legacy sequel: veteran legend with personal tragedy comes back to his old job to train the young rookie and earn personal redemption. The problem with F1 is that it’s missing the heart that Maverick had with the relationship between its title star and Rooster, not to mention the emotionally bracing scene between Maverick and Iceman (RIP Val Kilmer). Maverick was physically struggling to let go of his place as a top pilot and emotionally conflicted about whether he’s sending his dead best friend’s son off to a similar fate.

Meanwhile, Sonny is just a cocky prick who thinks he’s the only one who knows how to win a race. He becomes more unlikable as the movie goes along, never truly connects with Joshua, and everything he “earns” at the climax is almost out of pity. It’s as if Sonny gaslit the story into thinking he’s the real hero despite spending most of the movie rigging races so his team can earn points (almost in a Moneyball type of way) and tricking the team into liking him on aura alone. The real tragedy of F1 is that every other supporting character is more worthy of being the focus, whether it’s Joshua’s journey from coasting on media hype to becoming a diligent racer or Ruben pulling every resource he can find to get his team from worst place to first place (again, Moneyball style).

Who’s behind the wheel.

The actors playing those supporting characters are dying for more material. Bardem is a particular delight as the sharp-dressed foil to Pitt’s antics. For someone who’s played a variety of characters and won an Oscar in his lengthy career, it’s weird we haven’t seen Bardem flex his charm and authoritative presence in many blockbusters (Dune and Skyfall aside). Condon also holds her own with peppy energy and a brainy look, even if she does end up fawning over Pitt in the second half of the movie. You can tell that Idris, best known for TV’s Snowfall, is trying to be the breakout star of F1. He’s certainly got the swagger of a hot young star and handles Joshua’s more restrained character arc quite well. It’s a shame the script doesn’t leave more room for him to make his presence known with the rest of the cast.

And then there’s Pitt who, much like Cruise in Maverick, is an aging superstar trying to stay relevant in today’s Hollywood. While Cruise has been using past franchises (Mission: Impossible, Top Gun, Jack Reacher) to fuel his career lately, he at least had experience with those characters to inform their emotions and development while running from scene to scene. Since F1 is an “original” movie, Pitt doesn’t have much to go on and just coasts through all two-and-a-half hours of the runtime. It’s likely the producers needed a big name and pretty face to put on the poster and justify its reported $300 million budget. Pitt’s performance is based on aura alone, which is amusing at first but grows tiresome and annoying by the finale. Whatever energy or magnetism he once had as a sole leading man is clearly running out of fuel.

The bottom line.

F1: The Movie only lives up to half of its title, and not the Movie half. It certainly does its job of being a really nice commercial for Formula 1 and all of the technical aspects run smooth. As a movie, there are plenty of other films who do this better. We have a routine script and half-baked characters lead by an actor who’s just here to be a movie star. Any sense of drama is only through loud noises and editing, not character development or clever writing. It’s a celebration of the good ol’ days when old American cowboys showed the youngin’s how it was done with no growth or responsibility required. Your dad will probably love it, and if your boyfriend does too…just make sure he doesn’t pick up any new expensive hobbies.

F1: The Movie hits theaters Friday, June 27. Watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of Apple Original Films. Read more articles by Jon Winkler here.

Jon Winkler