By Matthew Moorcroft

Strong Recommendation

• Directed by Joseph Kosinski
• Starring Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
• PG-13

Do you like things that go fast? F1 really hopes that you do. From it’s first moments that recount the quick crash that our lead character has to contend with as his trauma, F1 speeds you to the racing line and almost never leaves it, with every conservation afterwards either about racing, during racing, after racing, the pre-game, the post-game, and the post-post-game, and the pre-pre-game. It wants you to feel the speed of it’s cars, the grind and gears of it’s parts, the loud roars of it’s engines – and the sudden burst of fear when something goes wrong. Which, this being a movie, happens more often then you would think.

So yeah, F1 isn’t going to win any awards in the script department because of that. And it’s mostly on purpose – just like the vehicle itself, F1 is meant to be a well oiled machine that does mostly what it says on the tin. It’s cast is likable, if archetypal, the story beats are stock but told sincerely, and it’s score is pulsing and pounding as per courtesy of the ever reliable Hans Zimmer.

And honestly, that’s really all it needs to be. F1‘s reliably old school approach to filmmaking and storytelling fits with Joseph Kosinski’s current modus operandi ever since Only the Brave back in 2017. And while F1 is certainly not on the same level of sheer magnitude that Top Gun: Maverick was, there is something to be said about how Kosinski’s approach to the material is a pitch perfect fit for the world of racing.

Kosinski has always had a precise calculation to his camera movements and general aesthetic, with the camera moving on a swivel without jitteriness or clutter, and each wide shot maximized for scale and impact. The racing scenes here are nothing short of wonderful by due process of them feeling fast and big, and the loud roars of the cars deafen your ears in a way that you would want them to. As an exercise in style over substance, F1 is clearly one of the best style over substance flicks we’ve received in a very long time, especially as it gets closer and closer to finish line and you realize exactly where it’s going in terms of story and narrative.

Formula isn’t necessarily bad however, and while F1 isn’t the best example of this – it’s still a little stock to a fault and feels really indebted to other sports movies in the past – it’s still solid enough that it passes with, if not flying colors, then colors held semi-high enough to see. There is more to found thematically and narratively the arc of Joshua Pearce, the younger hotshot racer who is seemingly in it for the fame and glory over the sport itself, compared to that of the more fully defined Sonny Hayes, who seemingly had his arc off screen prior to the start of the film and works as the “cool guy” of the film who can do no wrong.

This does mean that Brad Pitt has very little to work with emotionally, though he does try in fairness. Sonny himself is relatively likable, if a bit too macho, and he gets some great one liners thrown in there particularly when against Joshua. Instead though, Pitt finds himself mostly overshadowed by an excellent Damson Idris, who absolutely kills it here in a demanding role that has him go through the gambit of emotions and physical endurance, as well as an always reliably excellent Kerry Condon, whose arc is slightly underwritten but gives a topical edge to the film that keeps it in a modern context.

Much as been said about it’s technicals but F1 truly is mostly a technological marvel more then a story one. But it’s such a technical marvel that honestly it makes up for a lot of that, with gorgeous cinematography thanks to the always great Claudio Miranda, excellent sound design, and some of the best editing of the year in it matches the propulsive rhythm of Zimmer’s tracks. That final race is one of the best things I’ve seen this year in terms of setpieces, and it builds to such a great final set of images that I can imagine it sticking with the majority of audiences who do see it.

Will F1 be one of the best blockbusters of the summer? Unsure at the moment, but when it comes to non-franchise fare, F1 is a return to the days of the summer movie being mostly about hot characters doing hot character things very dangerously, and I think that’s more then enough to recommend it to anybody in the mood for a good big screen outing. After all, what’s better in the hot summer then to watch fast cars going really, really fast?