5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Cinematic spectacle, but lacking emotional drive
Damson Idris (left) and Brad Pitt in F1. PHOTO: WARNER BROS. PICTUIRES /TNS
Director: Joseph Kosinski|
Cast: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Javier Bardem
Rating: (M)
★★★+
REVIEWED BY AMASIO JUTEL
Re-entering his high-octane motor vehicle bag, Joseph Kosinski's follow-up to Top Gun: Maverick boasts cinematic spectacles worth the price of admission alone.
Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a relic racer turned motor-junkie-for-hire, who, despite the odds stacked against him, gets behind the wheel one last time. Win a race, or Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) will be forced to sell the racing company he owns a majority stake in, APXGP, to his unsporting, money-hungry board. The only problem: APXGP are dead last and not looking likely to change anytime soon. Fronted by an arrogant, hot-shot kid racer looking for his next paycheck when the company inevitably sells, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), and technical director and team lynchpin Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), it's a classic underdog story — can a has-been who never-was turn the team around, or will such an ambitious move be the final nail in Ruben's coffin?
Not only is the overarching story classic, it is simple, with a lacklustre resolution soliciting the lowest common denominator global audience F1 will attract.
Although F1 is emotionally uncomplicated, it is a technical marvel. The 375 kmh racing is captured on disbelieving camera setups, impossibly panning during races to prove to viewers (perhaps even more impossibly) that it is Pitt and Idris driving the rigs. High-stakes racing beckons stomach-turning crash sequences, which are scored by an electric soundtrack from Hans Zimmer. Off the track, the tech-specific nuances and intricacies of racing are gripping — the race strategy rivalry between team-mates sets up a textbook archetype of overcoming differences.
Between the explosive sequences, Bardem emphatically chews the scenery, Idris is full of swagger, and Condon is too good for the movie she is in. But with most of the film's focus on the veteran, Pitt, it is disappointing how mentally checked out, and quite frankly, lazy, this performance seems. This is, perhaps, the fault of the script, which does not measure up to 2023's Ferrari, a late-period Michael Mann film starring Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari. Mann, known for his layered protagonists, gives Driver true emotional stakes and a philosophical drive that hums throughout the two-hour runtime.
F1 is an effective commercial for the sport; well-explained and advertised to non-F1 viewers who have never heard about soft or hard tires, slipstream, or Drag Reduction Systems.
