As you’ll see in the photo above, I bought the firesuit-style APXGP Hawaiian shirt for when my friends and I went and saw F1: The Movie on the big screen this summer.
It was worth it.
Never been so locked in.
I’m slotting it in as my second-favorite movie of the year (for reference, just behind Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning and just ahead of Sinners, 28 Years Later and The Phoenician Scheme) and as one of the best racing movies we’ve had to date. I think I still like Rush better, but this is up there.
F1 was essentially announced on the heels of Top Gun: Maverick‘s immense success in the summer of 2022. The wheels had been turning before then, but things began to pick up as Maverick director Joseph Kosinski took the helm and Brad Pitt jumped on for the lead role of Sonny Hayes.
I had a lot of faith from the beginning, particularly because much of Maverick‘s crew was jumping on board for F1: Kosinski directing, Ehren Kruger writing, Jerry Bruckheimer (Days of Thunder veteran) producing, Claudio Miranda as cinematographer and Hans Zimmer composing the music.
I saw it Saturday (June 28) night in the biggest theater near me — the Short Pump Regal Cinemas’ IMAX theater in Richmond, Va. — and had a blast. I won’t get too deep into spoilers; anything close to that will be down at the bottom, because it only just came out and I’m not a terrible person.
First off, I’ll address a couple things I’ve seen complaints about online. There has been a lot of criticism levied at the script and story — older driver comes in to mentor a young hotshot, there’s a love story subplot, etc. — and I’m not in that camp.
We’ve seen the story before, but that’s because it works. With a movie trying to do this much on this colossal a scale (all the moving parts within the races and teams, the globetrotting aspect of the schedule), trying to do anything too innovative would just derail everything.
As such, nothing feels hackneyed. No need to reinvent the wheel when the wheel already works, right?
I also saw complaints about how it “doesn’t show much of the race weekend” or something like that. And that’s fine too! Nobody wants to see Sonny Hayes going out for FP2. That’s boring. Y’all have got to suspend your disbelief a little bit — I mean, it’s Hollywood. It doesn’t need to be a carbon copy of reality, and the amount of nitpicks about everything I’m seeing is insane. It’s like these people haven’t seen a movie before.
Regarding the production itself, the big focal point going in was the usage of 6K Sony cameras that were used much like those used in Top Gun: Maverick. In that movie, they were planted in the cockpits of fighter jets to capture real moments in the air, close-up shots of Tom Cruise and the rest of the cast and things like that.
Here, Kosinski and his team worked to put them all over the cars and around the cockpits to get shots of Pitt and Damson Idris wheeling these cars around the tracks. Some are even mobile, turning around as the APXGP cars make passes, so it feels less locked down and more natural. And, speaking of the tracks, there are some pretty incredible sweeping shots and overheads of the cars as they fly around Silverstone, Yas Marina and nearly a dozen circuits overall.
I also thought the movie did an excellent job of handling cameos from current Formula 1 drivers and personnel. They’re just there — and that’s it. That’s good. Anything more would be distracting. I think one, maybe two drivers have lines; less than half a dozen are really singled out at all besides being on podiums and whatnot.
We’re there to watch Pitt and Idris go at it with each other and against a field of 20 other competitors, and that is all these real-life drivers are. It’s very cool that they filmed at real races and got the actual drivers instead of a bunch of faceless, fictional competitors, but in 15 years, people watching this movie won’t care who was with what team. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
Pitt and Idris are great in their respective roles, as well, and the cast is a huge highlight. Pitt, of course, is a few years removed from winning an Oscar for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and remains one of the industry’s biggest names, right up there with Tom Cruise in terms of aura. He plays the cocky-but-vulnerable racer extremely well.
Idris was the lead on the FX show Snowfall, and this is his biggest movie credit to date. He and Pitt bounce off each other well and are excellent leads; their in-team rivalry takes some turns and both adjust well to the script.
The supporting cast has Javier Bardem (ridiculous amount of credits, including Skyfall as a Bond villain, both Dune films and No Country for Old Men, for which he won an Oscar), as APXGP’s owner, and Kerry Condon (who voiced Friday in five Marvel films but is better known for her Oscar-nominated turn in The Banshees of Inisherin) as the team’s technical director.
We also get Noted Cool Character Actor Shea Whigham in a brief role, crew-chiefing the team Brad Pitt drives for in the 24 Hours of Daytona. More on that in a bit.
There is vintage footage woven into the storyline (made for the movie), which was done extremely well. It looks authentic and is kept to a minimum while still having a huge impact.
A+ jobs on the cinematography, sound, performances, direction, everything. I would change very little about it.
Like I said, the movie starts with Pitt racing in the 24 Hours of Daytona, and now I want a movie from this same team about that race. And one about NASCAR (which we might get with the rumors around Days of Thunder 2). That entire scene is awesome, and the screams of the prototypes and GT cars are incredible.
I also loved the humor elements scattered throughout the movie. There’s one in particular — a telemetry chart in one of the first few races, that’s all I’ll say — that made my buddy beside me laugh harder than I’ve ever heard him laugh.
Hans Zimmer’s score is great, of course, and there are two albums associated with it (one with his cinematic score and one with artists like Chris Stapleton, Ed Sheeran and Tate McRae).
I don’t have a ton to complain about or criticize. I’m not watching movies to tear them apart. This did everything it needed to do. The love subplot is expected, and I think the movie would’ve been fine without it, but it’s perfectly good to have that element in a movie like this and works within the context of F1.
The racing scenes could’ve used a little more natural sound of the cars, surroundings and communications; a few of them just have an overlay with a random song playing, which I didn’t necessarily love. But when it’s important to have said natural sound, it delivers.
I do think the APXGP board member subplot was a little overwrought and could’ve easily been cut. The late retitling of the movie to F1: The Movie felt just a little corporate-y, but I assume was more for SEO and search results purposes … though I think the succinct F1 was a much better title.
As for the ending, I think the climactic scene of the film played out exactly the way it should’ve. And I’m extremely, extremely glad the film didn’t lean into the excess that defines the off-track Formula 1 lifestyle. It’s honestly part of why I couldn’t get through Drive to Survive: the first scene of one of the seasons is on the Aston Martin yacht and it’s the most egregious display of wealth I’ve ever seen. That wasn’t necessary for the F1 film and I’m glad they avoided it. “It’s just noise,” as Hayes tells Pearce.
Crashes are a part of any film based around motorsports, and there are a few in this one. They’re all executed pretty well; one of them (you’ll know when you see it) got a few chuckles from the audience when it happens (think Ferrari from a couple years back), but it’s not unlike other airborne crashes that have happened in real life. We had an F1 car do a backflip in 1993, for god’s sake.
Ironically, that crash was at the same track the movie accident I’m referring to happens.
Finally, a quick note on the promotion. I love most everything they’ve done to push this movie, from the helmet-shaped popcorn buckets to the Hot Wheels diecasts it appears Mattel will be making. I’m a little bummed that those high-quality 1:43-scale replicas that McDonald’s is including with Happy Meals — one APXGP livery and one McDonald’s-themed F1 car — won’t be making their way to the States. They’re going for about $200 a pair on eBay, if you’re wondering.
Is this movie perfect? No. No movie is. But it’s made well, features great performances and is the best motorsports film to hit the big screen since Rush.
F1: The Movie is playing in theaters everywhere, including in most formats. I suggest seeing it on the biggest screen possible. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.