F1 (2025)

The Original High-Octane Event of the Summer.

Grade: A

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In an age where entertainment is becoming increasingly taken for granted with streaming platforms and AI, it is important to remember what films are truly capable of. F1: The Movie is a demonstration of this. Directed and written respectively by Joseph Kosinski and Ehren Kruger, the duo behind 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, it takes an age-old story and tells it with powerful conviction that only the movies can deliver, combining edge-of-your-seat racing excitement with terrific performances

            The oft-told story of F1 is that of an aged character who was once the best at what he did and is now being asked to return in order to help a newcomer in his former field. That aged character is Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a former Formula One racecar driver whose career was cut short by a violent crash thirty years ago. Since then, desperate to recover his love of driving, he has participated in several racing events and is now approached by his old friend and former fellow racer, Ruben (Javier Bardem), to join his F1 team APXGP for the Grand Prix. Sonny accepts, only for his ego and ideals to clash with those of his rookie teammate, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris).

            There have been many movies about cocky protagonists who need to learn humility. Sonny is certainly cocky, but he is also clever with his experience, and even adaptable. After initially refusing to yield his position in the races to his partner, Sonny swallows his pride and uses the rules of racing to his advantage in order to move Joshua closer to first place. But things remain tense between them. Like Maverick and Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick, it takes a long time before they truly reconcile. In the meantime, the stakes are high for their team; they’ve been doing badly the first part of the season, and if they fail to win a single race, APXGP is history.

            At 156 minutes, the film hardly ever feels overlong, thanks both to its execution and the actors. Everyone gives it their all, making their characters likeable and empathetic despite their occasional antagonism. Pitt played this sort of role twice before, in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and Babylon (2022). In both of those movies, his character was past his prime and eventually cut loose in the world, seemingly without a future. In F1, however, he valiantly struggles to recapture his glory days and (spoiler alert!) ultimately succeeds. The movie also avoids being overly sentimental; after everything has settled down, the two drivers become friends, but not like inseparable brothers. It also is a common trope in movies about sports for things to go wrong just before the finale; in this case, things go disastrously wrong not once but twice, increasing the tension even more.

            Of course, the biggest attraction here is the racing scenes, and they do not disappoint in the slightest. What Kosinski did for fighter planes in Maverick he now does for Formula One cars. The IMAX cinematography and rapid-fire editing puts us right there in the action as the cars zip around, bumping into each other and crashing, while Sonny forces his own agenda on the pit crew. Kosinski and his crew spared no expense in delivering a racing spectacle, and it paid off big-time. Excitement is guaranteed.

            F1 is a major triumph, both for its characters and movies in general. In today’s market, it will likely be difficult for the film to break even with its $300 million budget. But the fact that it is able to stand tall in cinemas alongside the endless parade of sequels, reboots, etc. shows that the market for high-quality, feel-good original content has not run dry. And like this year’s Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning, the thrills of F1 are best experienced in only one place-the cinema.

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Director: Joseph Kosinski

Screenplay: Ehren Kruger

Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Joseph Kosinski, Lewis Hamilton, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Chad Oman

Cast: Brad Pitt (Sonny Hayes), Damson Idris (Joshua Pearce), Kerry Kondon (Kate McKenna), Javier Bardem (Ruben Cervantes), Tobias Menzies (Peter Banning), Kim Bodnia (Kaspar Smolinski), Sarah Niles (Bernadette Pearce), Will Merrick (Hugh Nickleby)

Rated: PG-13 (for strong language, and action)