Brad Pitt leads an all-star cast in the ultra-impressive F1. Photo: Apple Original Films.
Fresh from the success of Top Gun: Maverick and making fighter jets cool again, director Joseph Kosinski set himself a new task: to bring Formula One to the big screen.
Much like the F-18s of the aforementioned Top Gun: Maverick, Mr Kosinski said “hell nah” to using CGI vehicles for F1 and instead put real people in real cars with real cameras and the results are fan-freaking-tastic.
Just like fellow Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise in Top Gun, Brad Pitt leads this crazy thrill ride as experienced driver Sonny Hayes. Hayes has been travelling the United States, finding drives in GT events, endurance racing and drag races.
Upon his success as a one-and-done driver, he is drafted by his former racing partner, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), who is now the owner of a struggling F1 team, APX.
Desperate to win just a single race in order to keep the team alive for the following season, Sonny is forced to work alongside cocky rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) to turn the team around.
The story here is pretty basic. It’s a stereotypical sports movie through and through, where the underdogs have to stick it to the competitors they have no right to race against. What separates this film from the likes of other sports movies is the action.
It looks and feels incredible. From the first race in Daytona to the final laps in Abu Dhabi, Mr Kosinski, the production crew and the stunt team did an absolutely insane job of creating as real and immersive an experience as I’ve ever seen.
Each shot looks and feels real and that’s because it is. Cars pass each other, people were actually in the cockpits and some crashes, albeit sped up or slowed down, actually occurred. This is what separates F1 from other car racing films like Rush and Days of Thunder.
While the story itself is not as great as those films, understanding why Brad Pitt is driving the car is not the reason you bought a ticket.
I was fortunate enough to see this early at an IMAX cinema with a bunch of other passionate F1 fans and this is without a doubt the best way to experience the film. If you are fortunate enough to be in Canberra, Sydney or Melbourne over the next month or so, seek this film out on an IMAX screen.
The sounds are incredible, the crystal clear 4K resolution was amongst the best I’ve seen for a film and the shot for IMAX 1.90 aspect ratio adds extra immersion to an already awesome flick.
There are some super, super nitpicky criticisms I do have that come with being a passionate F1 fan. As someone who stays up till 4 am to watch the American Grand Prix while taking days off work to watch the final race of the year, there are some things I found a tad annoying.
Things like drivers taking part in the race despite not qualifying, or events that would be penalties in real life getting ignored for the story’s sake were initially jarring, but once you realise that this is the race you’re forced to run throughout the film, it takes a back seat because the end result is too much fun.
There were several times when a keen eye could pick that the APX car is a lot thinner or not quite as long as the other cars. This is due to the car used during filming being an F2 car (a junior division of F1). Unless you are a die-hard fan or someone intentionally looking for this detail, you will not notice.
Anyone looking for cameos from real-life drivers like Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton or Australia’s own Oscar Piastri might also find themselves slightly disappointed. While they are in the film, none of them have any speaking lines and serve as nothing more than identifiable people in a movie more focused on the fictional team.
This is something the film could have addressed.
Having a line from Hamilton or Charles Leclerc or even a team principal like Christian Horner about how big of a joke APX is as a team, or the novelty of having a 50-year-old driving would have made the film a tad bit more authentic.
All of these minor critiques are completely thrown out the window as soon as the cars rev up. If Brad Pitt driving an F1 car to a Hans Zimmer score in crystal clear, ultra-wide resolution doesn’t sound awesome, then we clearly have different definitions of the word.
F1 is showing in cinemas across the country and will soon be showing on Apple TV+ (but seriously, watch it on the big screen!)
