F1 - Mark Reviews Movies

F1, Warner Bros. Pictures / Apple Original Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 26, 2025

The racing in F1 looks real enough, which certainly counts for something. Director Joseph Kosinski and cinematographer Claudio Miranda make sure of that—staging their race sequences on actual tracks around the world and putting cameras in just about every imaginable spot on and in the car, as well as along those courses. As such, the movie comes to life when it's just about the drama of what happens on the racetrack, especially the sense of dangerous speed and proximity that comes with the territory.

The problem with those sequences, however, is that none of that drama is new or particularly exciting apart from the visceral spectacle of the action. Whenever the movie leaves the racetrack, it's even more familiar and even less involving. Ehren Kruger's screenplay basically takes every cliché one might expect from a racing or, in broader terms, sports story, melds them together, and seems to hope that the actual production will get the racing so right that no one will care.

It's a shame, too, because there is at least a kernel of a fine idea in the story's protagonist—even if he's a cliché, as well. He's Sonny Hayes, a former Formula One driver from the 1990s whose career came to a sudden end following a crash that should have killed him. After that, he spent a decade out of the public eye, became a professional gambler, a New York City cab driver, and eventually started racing in any league that would let him—regardless of the car. When we first witness his skills, Sonny is driving a sports car on the track at Daytona as part of a team for an endurance race, and after the team wins, he quietly sneaks away, looking to join an even smaller circuit and driving a completely different type of vehicle.

By the way, Sonny is played by Brad Pitt, an actor who can suggest much more to such an introverted and isolated character than just his movie-star swagger. The idea of Sonny, a man who lost his career and escaped death but now almost seems to be chasing both outside of the spotlight, is fascinating. That the movie only counts on Pitt's ability to charm and show a lot of bluster as the core of this character, though, kind of gets at how superficial the entirety of the affair is.

The basic premise has Sonny's old friend and former racing partner Ruben (Javier Bardem) show up out of the blue with an offer the race-chasing man cannot refuse. Ruben now runs a Formula One team that hasn't won any points in the past two seasons under his guidance, and with only nine races left in his third season, the team is still point-less, in debt, and surely to undergo some major changes in management if they don't improve. Ruben's counting on Sonny to drive, win himself, or help promising rookie Joshua (Damson Idris) live up to his potential.

From there, we now have the classic underdog story, the rivalry between the possibly washed-up old guard and the new blood who's in it for the fame and money, and the tale of an athlete with one last chance to finally prove himself. Once Sonny starts asking his old friend about the personal life of the team's technical director Kate (Kerry Condon), we know a romance will inevitably blossom, too, even if it is against the better judgment and better use of a character like Kate in this story. She's the first woman to serve in this position on a Formula One team, and that feels like a far more important detail and accomplishment than whether or not she'll give in to Sonny's charismatically blunt ways.

All of this is essentially to say that the script does the bare minimum in terms of its characters, the stakes of its plot, and any kind of insight into the minds and personalities of those who would risk their lives in compact machines going a couple hundred miles per hour. A few characters, for example, ask Sonny why he drives, if it's not for the fame, the glory, or the money and when he came so close to dying while doing it. Each time, the man offers nothing more than a chuckle, which probably means it's because he can but ends up coming across as the movie really doesn't care why, as long as Sonny does.

Again, when those races are happening, we don't particularly care about such matters, either. The racing scenes are dynamically shot, edited together with a constant sense of momentum, and give some notion of Sonny's rather devious tactics in giving his team an edge (blocking opponents coming out of a pit stop, intentionally taking a hit to slow the race for safety, and using his car as a shield for Joshua's in the rain). After several of these races, though, it becomes obvious that, despite how much business happens in the earlier laps, the drama only arrives in those last ones.

That's because this is, appropriately enough, all formula, both on and off the track. F1 shows flashes of excitement and ingenuity in its filmmaking, but mostly, it's nothing special.

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