Lisa Released on June 27, this is a big sports drama about professional auto racing and personalities behind the scenes. Brad Pitt continues to defy his age in the action movie space, in a manner similar to Tom Cruise. Pitt, whose laconic acting style works well enough for the film, is 61. He and co-star Damson Idris did much of the actual driving, however the cars used weren’t the real thing. They were modified F2s made to look like F1s, and the result was convincing.
The show stealers, however, are the cinematography and actress Kerry Condon. Condon is an Irish actress who portrays the fictional first female technical director of the Formula 1 auto races. In reality, there hasn’t been a Formula 1 female technical director, although women currently hold positions as engineers, mechanics and racers. Damson Idris, who stunned audiences in television’s “Snowfall” series, is also a standout. The British actor plays rookie racing phenomenon Joshua Pearce. Sonny Hayes (Pitt’s character), once a prodigy before being seriously injured in the Spanish Grand Prix, is now a racer-for-hire and lives out of his van. After a decades long break from competitive racing, his performance results in a team win at the 24 Hours of Daytona race. He’s subsequently offered a spot on an underdog Formula 1 team which will next compete in the British Grand Prix. The offer is made by former teammate Ruben Cervantes, played by Javier Bardem, who persuades Hayes to stay in the game and join his team in hopes of saving it with some much-needed wins. Pearce is a rookie teammate, whom Hayes is expected to mentor, and yet a fierce competition ensues between the two men.
The APXGP team with Hayes now achieves some wins and moves forward, amid pressure from investors, to the Hungarian, Italian and Abu Dahbi Grand Prix races. There is much drama surrounding each race, both on the track and behind the scenes. This can be both mesmerizing and at times repetitive. Interestingly, the racing scenes were shot during real F1 races. The cast and crew had permission to set up in between actual races and therefore had tight windows for scene shooting. This adds to the realistic feel of the movie, including shots of the racing enthusiasts in the stands. “You can’t fake the energy of race day,” said film Director Joseph Kosinski (who also directed “Top Gun: Maverick”) to the Movie Blog on June 28. According to the film’s producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, it took a year to convince the FIA (organizer of the F1 races) to be able to film “F1: The Movie” on the tracks during race weekends.
One needn’t know anything about Formula 1 racing to sit back and enjoy the show. General details of the racing structure are filled in, while the sound effects and visuals dominate. The movie is long, clocking in at 2 hours and 35 minutes and rated PG-13. Is this a good movie? In a word, yes. The method of filming along with the cinematography add to the film’s excitement and quality. Does this movie achieve greatness? No. The story line could have been further developed, the racing scenes sometimes feel overdrawn and even formulaic and yet the action, emotions and feel-good moments are all there and make the movie worthwhile for what it is – a good sports drama. My experience was enhanced by viewing it in a Lux Box seat at Falls Church’s new Paragon Theaters, in their largest auditorium (the Axis 15 Extreme with its huge and fabulous screen and Dolby Atmos sound) and it felt like I was right there at the races. I could literally feel the sound (sound, after all, consists of vibrations) as the drama progressed to a crescendo ending.
