★★★ (3 out of 4)
“F1: The Movie” doesn’t spell out “Formula One” in the title, probably because formula, as in same-old-same-old, is what kills most racing movies. All those wheels going round and round, especially for two hours and 36 minutes, can lull you into a trance or worse, a rut. What’s needed in the driver’s seat is a star who can also act, and “F1” has a humdinger in Brad Pitt. Even with a racing helmet covering most of his face, Pitt’s eyes shine on their highest beams, reflecting a classic hotness that defines the art of aging gracefully.
Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a rule-breaking motorsport racer who could have hit the F1 heights if not for his arrogance and a traumatic crash that sidelined him 30 years ago into track-bum jobs and—yikes!— driving a cab in NYC. It’s his ex-teammate Ruben (an ultra-smooth Javier Bardem) an owner of the struggling Apex Grand Prix team (APXGP), who calls Sonny back to Formula One. Not to compete, not at first, but to ease back into the sport that made him.
Hey, wait. That sounds just like “Top Gun: Maverick,” the 2022 Tom Cruise blockbuster. Coincidence? Nah. “Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski also did “F1.” “Maverick” screenwriter Ehren Kruger also wrote “F1.” “Maverick” composer Hans Zimmer also scored “Fi.” You get my drift. Kosinski has a team he trusts. For good reason. Sure, they’re applying the same flyboy template to hotshot drivers. And they’re pretty shameless about it. They’re also pretty shameless at giving it everything they’ve got.
Copycatting aside, it’s amazing that “F1” works as well as it does. Kosinski really knows his way around testosterone-fueled epics. Dubbed a “Dad movie”by idiot trend spotters, “F1” is actually hunting bigger game—the competition between youth and age in building a team.
Enter Joshua Pearce (dynamo Damson Idris) one of two Black rookies, uncommon in a white sport, who drives for APXGP and thinks Sonny is full of it. “He’s real old, like 80,” Joshua tells his mom Bernadette (a terrific Sarah Niles). That’s the biggest laugh in the movie since Pitt, at 61, exudes a scruffy glamor, much like he did in the stunt man role that won him his first Oscar for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Better yet, Pitt is a master at finding the storms thrashing under Sonny’s cool exterior.
The feud between Sonny and Joshua, who become driving partners, had to have a background that looked authentic. Remember how the Navy did that favor for “Maverick?” Formula One honchos were quick to offer an all-access pass for “F1” to film many of the 24 Grand Prix races that take place between March and December. Yes, the Hollywood crew had to roll cameras on the actors during the downtime between races, but you’ll feel like you’re strapped in and ready to gun it.
As a result, both movies can feel like recruitment posters. Compromise? Maybe. No skeletons are trotted out of the F1 closet. It helps that real motorsport luminaries appear as themselves, including famed Black racing champ racer Lewis Hamilton, a producer on the film who shares a glance that speaks volumes with the fictional Joshua.
A romance is dragged in for Sonny with APXGP technical director Kate McKenna, played by a standout Kerry Condon. There’s way too much inter-office dawdling in a film that’s already running long. But Team Kosinski is determined to raise “F1” above the “Fast & Furious” herd. And the team succeeds thrillingly.
As soon as it becomes clear that Sonny, battered by gambling debts, failed marriages and living in a shabby camper van, is going to get off the sidelines and into the main event with Joshua, “F1” becomes the movie it always wanted to be: a thunderously exciting cinema tribute to risk junkies who never find peace until they leave everything they’ve got on the track. You can feel the vibe on Sonny’s favorite Led Zepp anthem, “Whole Lotta Love.”
The killer races are shot by Claudio Miranda—yes, he also shot “Maverick”—on locations that swerve from Abu Dabi and Monza to London and Las Vegas. It’s all here, the victories and the flame-outs, the beauty and the terror. Pitt and Idris floor it by doing their own driving, sometimes up to 180 mph, and yet finding the nuances to create characters with more in mind than the finish line. Pitt seems to be having the time of his life, and his joy in the vroom is contagious, but what sticks about his performance is the way he makes sure that we never lose sight of what’s human and striving behind the wheel.