F1
“F1”
2025
Action/Sport
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Screenwriter: Ehren Kruger
Starring: Brad Pitt; Damson Idris; Kerry Condon; Javier Bardem
Cinematographer: Claudio Miranda
Composer: Hans Zimmer
Running Time: 2h 36m
Country: USA
I’ll keep it real, this movie was not all that.
Which is upsetting.
I really love ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, probably one of my favourite action movies in recent times. I also like Kosinski’s ‘Tron: Legacy’ to a certain extent.
This movie just sucked the life out of me.
Runtime was not an issue, but this film felt like it went on forever and ever. Pacing was good, scenes were edited well and flowed together well, yet with more gimmicks and worse filmmaking being uncovered as the plot trundled along. It felt rushed.
This felt like it was meant more to be a piece of money-making media released at the peak of a highly popular sport for maximum cash-flow instead of being properly taken care of as a film that could’ve had more impact than just cars going fast.
Characters are disastrously one-dimensional, dialogue sounds like it was written by a five-year-old who just watched the latest season of ‘Drive to Survive’, side characters that waste screentime, and so much more left a bitter taste in my mouth after the viewing.
That being said, there were some redeeming factors, but let’s get started.
‘F1’ is being put on trial on the charges of being a film that glorifies and promotes risk-taking whilst taking absolutely zero risks.
Please be seated.
My first piece of evidence I’d like to bring forward is character.
The characters in this movie, both main and side, were lifeless and seemingly written as hollow shells of potentially more interesting pieces. This is largely to the fault of the writers, less so than the actors.
I will say, the actors in ‘F1’ are mostly doing a great job. Javier Bardem, Kerry Condon, and Damson Idris were standouts to me, all evidently pushing the limits of the performance they could deliver with the tools they were given. There were several moments where the emotions they were able to convey took over the scene, a good example being Javier Bardem in, like, all of his scenes.
I feel very neutral about Brad Pitt’s performance. He is not a character actor, and I believe he is more just ‘Brad Pitt’ in his movies and the definition of a ‘movie star’.
The only exception is ‘Snatch’. My word, what a good movie that is. He is amazing in that.
Just go watch ‘Snatch’.
Now, the characters.
Each character is filled with their own flaws, but I’ll explain a few.
Kerry Condon’s ‘Kate’ character. A supposed Senior Aero Engineer or something along those lines, stated to be one of the best with lots of experience behind her. This is a great foundation for an interesting character who could go through a genuinely eye-opening arc. Instead, she is slapped with the love interest title, and has her own arc tied in with Sonny’s. What a waste. You’re also telling me that Sonny figured out how to make better aero on the car before Kate did? Are you joking? What a spit in the face of Kate’s character. “Oh you gotta make it for combat haha”, stop pissing me off.
Another one is Tobias Menzies’ ’Peter’. Bet you can’t even remember who that is. He is that supposed antagonist who offers to give Sonny a part of the team if he loses. Peter’s direct involvement with the plot only happens in the last fifth of the movie, and is used to put more stakes on the final race in order to create the perfect feel good ending of Sonny shutting him down. It felt like the writers added him in at some point and were like, “oh fuck, we need some sort of off-track issue too.” A useless villain, with stupid, overused cliches and character traits.
The beauty of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is that there is no singular major villain type, but instead there are rivals which Maverick has to win over. This is the tension that keeps you invested in the character's development in this style of movie. Formula One has always been about rivalries, and this film could have invested heavily into that dynamic, yet it resolves the brief tension between the two drivers before the end of the second act, leaving the final races’ stakes being a little forced.
This leads to ‘Sonny’ played by Brad Pitt. The movie starts and ends, and this dude is still the same. Wow, what a character development journey. This movie is two and a half hours of Kosinski jerking off to Pitt’s underbite-jaw-flex face, and that is labelled as development. All he talks about is risk, loving driving, and being a nomad. He is not a personable character, comes off like a smart-ass, especially in moments where he games the races by smashing his car up. There are rules in place, and this style of reckless character for the sake of taking risks just drags you out of the already hole-filled plot.
Also, there is that scene in Vegas where Sonny and Joshua mention their dads died at the same age. That’s it. No further elaboration.
Thank fuck, almost had some character development, got me worried for a sec.
The plot hounds on about taking risks, loving to live life quickly, how racing is in the blood, how you have to put everything on the line. This film does none of that. There is nothing on the line. If you boil it down, this movie is the safest piece of money-making trash that a group of writers could create.
No characters are in any danger, and yes, even after that Joshua crash that saw him in hospital, you know he’ll be fine (by the way, that crash was so unrealistic, there is no way a car at that weight, in those conditions, on that curb, would fly like that. I get that it’s a movie, but I have my limits). The only time where I was unsure was when Sonny’s back was all cooked, but then that was all good in the end too. The team is the underdog for the film but never get any serious heat from other teams, which would’ve been interesting, not those laughable press conference remarks by the other team principals.
Main guy wins race.
Other, younger main guy gets his shot to lead.
Team owner who puts faith into a team retains his hold on the team.
Villain gets fucked off.
Girl gets with main guy.
People learn dumbass lessons like “maybe I shouldn’t be a dickhead”, or “maybe I am worth it”, or “hey risks are pretty cool”.
Keep spoon feeding me this, please, I can’t get enough. Oh dear, all these plot points and themes are all over my bib.
Moving from character, some visual issues also couldn’t help but present themselves.
So many shots cut together with varying facial expressions, or different liquid amounts in glasses, or differing hand positions, it gets to a point where it’s distracting and takes you out of the plot (thank fuck).
And the product placement. Oh my, just to hammer home the consumerist tendencies this film wants to evoke, every expository scene is introduced with 20 shots of products. It just crams it down your throat, wipes the tears from your eyes, and expects you to thank them.
Now, credit where credit is due.
The camera work is marvelous. Not saying it’s my favourite shot film, but some of the sequences and techniques used in this film are ground-breaking and haven’t been seen before. This was expected after ‘Maverick’, but they absolutely knocked it out of the park. The shots in the cars felt super fast, tense, and you feel like you’re absolutely as close to the action as you can be.
Sound design also pairs splendidly here, the audio sensations mesh with the visuals to keep you engaged during these action scenes and promotes more of that realism that you’d expect from a Formula One movie.
The styling of the film was also great. All the characters looked natural in their outfits, the racing suits looked sharp, the livery on the car looked sleek and racey, and everything looked in-place for a movie of this budget and grandeur. You absolutely cannot tell that APX GP is a fictional team, everything looks so legit that it feels like they have been racing for years.
Some other house-keeping items:
I miss seeing Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes. So much aura.
Guenther Steiner mouthing his curse words was the only part to make me chuckle, and I’m glad about it.
Brad Pitt is just playing Brad Pitt.
In the end, for the reasons listed in this piece, I can hereby sentence Joseph Kosinski’s ‘F1’ to shooting the whole movie again, but the whole grid races in Little Tikes Cozy Coupe’s.
4.2/10