Review: F1® THE MOVIE

 by Rob DiCristino

Microwaved Maverick.

One of the 21st century’s great screen performances comes courtesy of Brad Pitt in Bennett Miller’s Moneyball, the story of a Never Was baseball prospect-turned-general manager who rebels against a system that prioritizes a player’s swagger and style over their talent and tenacity. Pitt plays Billy Beane with a simmering melancholy that must have been informed by his own struggle with celebrity — both Pitt and Beane are questioning the very “conventional wisdom” that created them — giving Moneyball a metatextual depth that elevates it beyond the typical sports movie. The same could be said of Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick, a big-budget lega-sequel that doubles as an incisive critique of the modern blockbuster. Returning Tom Cruise to the role that made him a household name three decades earlier, Maverick celebrates the power of true movie stardom, the ineffable x-factor that no cinematic universe, however sprawling or elaborate, could possibly replace. Both films are at once romantic and boisterous, ambitious and elegiac. Both, in short, are masterpieces.

So, the bigwigs at Apple Studios must have asked, why not combine them? Why not give Joseph Kosinski carte blanche to make another Maverick-sized summer extravaganza? Why not give another sexagenarian A-lister — and Interview with the Vampire star— a chance to reinvigorate his fading image? Brad Pitt stars in F1® The Movie, Joseph Kosinski’s newest do-it-for-real IMAX spectacular. Trading F-18 fighters for Formula One Grand Prix, the film follows Never Was racing prospect-turned cab driver Sonny Hayes (Pitt) on a literal road to redemption — several roads, in fact, each one of the world’s most challenging F1 courses. Owner of a last-place team and facing expulsion by his board of directors, veteran Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) hopes that his old pal Sonny — twice divorced and living in his van since his career ended thirty years ago — can right the ailing ship. To do so, Sonny will have to contend with hotshot upstart Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), spunky technical director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), and a racing media ecosystem eager to see him fail.

For most of its running time, F1® The Movie — yes, I’ve been asked to type it out like that — aims to deliver exactly the super-charged summer thrills that IMAX audiences are expecting. Kosinski and Maverick DP Claudio Miranda clearly remember how to strap cameras onto speedy vehicles, and that rubber-meets-the-road verisimilitude goes a long way toward showcasing the genuine work that Pitt and Idris put into becoming believable racers. F1® The Movie is also a celebration of brand synergy, with Ruben’s fictional APXGP sliding in next to Aston Martin and Ferrari at real F1 events. Those of us who can’t tell a stock car from a dragster might bristle at the overwhelming advertising in each frame — you’ll be able to draw the Expensify logo from memory by the end — but the Formula One faithful will appreciate Kosinski’s authentic approach to the sport’s technical complexity and opulent glamour. Coupled with Al Nelson’s muscular sound design, F1® The Movie will have you believing that you’re actually in a tiny car that’s going really, really fast.

And you’d better believe it, because Ehren Kruger’s screenplay doesn’t bring much else of substance to latch onto. Without Pete Mitchell in the mix to get our nostalgia juices flowing, the Maverick scribe is forced to take the kitchen sink approach to F1® The Movie, squeezing every possible sports movie cliche for all the pathos it has to offer. The results are middling, unfortunately, as Sonny’s backstory is never fleshed out enough to be compelling, nor does his rivalry with Joshua ever take a traceable, plot-relevant shape. Sonny is a small-m maverick whose unconventional — read: irresponsible — approach to his work is never properly justified as an alternative to the professional methods of his teammates, and it’s hard to pin down exactly what his young counterpart is meant to learn from his stewardship. Kosinski and Kruger are assuming we’ll cheer an underdog on sight, but most of the shading Sonny gets between laps — including a painfully-dry monologue about “flying” — makes him seem like exactly the washed-up asshole his detractors believe him to be.

But does F1® The Movie really need any coherent character arcs or thoughtful subtext? I suppose not. It’s more about the feel of the track, after all. The hum of the engines. The ease of reimbursement management provided by Expensify. But even the thrill of Formula One starts to wane after a dozen or so races, especially as Kosinski’s handful of available camera angles grow repetitive and the live commentary from race announcers — commentary that is solely and inexplicably focused on the exploits of a last-place team — grows tiresome. In the end, F1® The Movie proves Kosinski to be a skilled technician who needs a Tom Cruise or Christopher McQuarrie by his side to flesh out the “why” of it all, to bring the joy and charisma that separates conventional summer blockbusters from, well, Top Gun: Maverick. “If it’s not about the money, then what is it about?” Sonny is asked throughout the film. He never gives us a firm answer, but aside from the state-of-the-art receipt scanning technology that only Expensify can offer, F1® The Movie doesn’t seem to be about much of anything at all.

F1® The Movie — which I’ve just typed for the last time — hits U.S. theaters on Friday, June 27th.