F1: The Movie (2025): Pitt Thrills

by Len Weiler

F1: The Movie is the new film by the talented director Joseph Kosinski, starring the inimitable Brad Pitt as the central character. It’s about a seemingly washed up auto-racer, Sonny Hayes, trying to make a comeback. Most of it takes place in the highest level of racing: international Formula One (F1) competition. Please don’t quit reading just because you don’t give a shit about auto-racing. Neither do I. But F1 (the movie) is one of the more thrilling cinematic experiences I’ve had in years, and it’s likely to feel the same for you.

One of the great things about going to the movies is walking out of the theater still physically imbued with the emotional ambience of a film, be it a heart wrenching drama, a melancholy memory piece, or a tear-inducing romance. Or maybe you can’t erase the lingering smile on your face, emerging from a great comedy. This may be less common after viewing a film at home, but it can still happen with a good movie, particularly if you’ve been watching with lights turned down and no distractions, allowing the picture to suck you in. 

Surprisingly, this response is rarer – at least for me - with action movies. Maybe it’s because the action genre is so abundant we’ve become inured to its trope. Frankly, too few directors have the imagination - or the budgets – to break the mold.  But there are exceptions, and Kosinski, F1’s director, is surely one. 

A great action movie can rev you up, get your adrenalin flowing and leave you walking away still excited, your nervous system fully alert, feeling (however briefly) like a million bucks. A good recent example, also directed by Kosinski, is Top Gun: Maverick (2022) starring Tom Cruise - a sequel to Top Gun (1986) released thirty-six years after the original, which also starred Cruise, then just 25. Maverick is about speed and about racing (in a military jet fighter context) and features remarkable efforts to combine authenticity, realism and technical sophistication with astounding cinematography to convey a visceral feeling of and for the danger and excitement of piloting state of the art aircraft travelling at over 1400 mph. That picture left me breathless; and I wasn’t the only one.  Audiences across the globe loved Maverick and flocked to movie theaters to see it: It was the highest grossing film in the US that year, bringing in over $700 million and more than double that worldwide. 

F1 has the same commitment to authenticity and an equivalent level of technical brilliance. Like Maverick, it also features a major Hollywood star playing a veteran hotshot, with a storied, if messy, backstory, returning to the world of speed, trying to beat the odds. Like Cruise, Brad Pitt is a terrific actor - handsome, cool, versatile, ruggedly charming and amiable (at least as a film hero). Not to mention still bankable at age 61. (Cruise is six months older!) There’s no question Pitt’s star power helps make F1 so watchable; but beyond his iconic status, Pitt is actually terrific as Sonny Hayes, and carries the story on his shoulders. 

This is not to downplay the strong performances by an excellent supporting cast – including Javier Bardem, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies [aka ‘Brutus’ – from his memorable role in HBO’s series Rome twenty years ago] and, not least, Damson Idris. Idris (best known for his starring role in the FX/Hulu series Snowfall) plays Josh - a young, cocky, attractive, up and coming Formula One driver on the same team as Sonny Hayes, a guy whom Hayes is both competing with and mentoring. 

Sonny’s story - the demons he is chasing and how he gets back into Formula One racing - is interesting enough, as are sidelights like his attraction to Condon and his long-time friendship with Bardem’s character. But the plot and subplots themselves are not especially well developed nor all that original; rather, they are - dare I say it – formulaic.  

What makes F1 a great movie are it’s look and feel, in particular its supercharged racetrack scenes where exquisitely wrought speed machines are tearing around - vrooming in excess of 200 mph.  With close ups of the drivers’ tense, focused faces, clenched hands on the steering yoke, skidding around curves, dangerously passing other drivers - even crashing – these moments are riveting. Just as gripping and breathtaking are the reverse shots where we experience all this from the driver’s perspective – like you are in the driver’s seat. And the soundscape of roaring engines – so loud and so deep as the cars pass the grandstand that my seat shuddered beneath me. Simply fantastic!

Kosinski and his team – which included Director of Photography Claudio Miranola and Sound Designer Al Nelson and his crew at Skywalker Sound (both of whom also worked on Maverick, as well) - aimed for as much realism as humanly possible. The actors spent three months training to drive formula one cars at high speeds before filming began, so most of what you see of Pitt and Idris whipping through curves is really them. Scenes at pit stops during races, where all four worn-out tires are changed by highly trained crews in about 3 (three!) seconds, are as thrilling as the high speed sequences. Emphasizing the extreme risks of auto racing, there are a few dramatic crashes - modelled after historic racecourse smashups, seamlessly weaving actual footage of some of these into the re-creations.      

 F1: The Movie is about ambition (in a good way), maturity, loyalty, following your dream, and stuff like that. But mostly it’s about thrills, exhilarating edge of seat action, and adrenalin-filled entertainment. Nothing wrong with that – it’s what, arguably, Hollywood does best. I loved it. Critics and the ticket-buying public seem to feel the same way.  On the ratings site Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has earned a critical score (“Tomatometer”) of 83% and an audience score (“Popcornmeter”) of a whopping 97%. The viewer score on IMDB is 7.9.  Just as telling are the box office numbers: on its opening weekend, from Friday June 27 to Sunday June 29, the film took in $147 million worldwide [$57 million in America alone). Not a bad start.

This is the sort of film best seen in theaters, as I suggested at the outset. There’s no question that the visceral thrills of actiony pictures like this one are enhanced on a giant screen with big theater sound, while their effects are somewhat diminished on a relatively small one with built in tv speakers or even a good soundbar. I know that many of my readers are hesitant to venture forth to theaters these days – often due to covid, flu and and other health concerns in crowded venues.  But if you have the option of going to a weekday matinee or other afternoon screening, you’ll find that crowds are rare and you may be sitting in a big space with just one or two dozen other patrons - perhaps at reduced cost as well.  In such case, why miss out?  If you do have to wait to see F1: The Movie at home, turn up the volume a bit, turn down the lights, maybe make a pot of popcorn, and enjoy!

2 hours 35 minutes Rated PG-13

Grade: A  (for action)

Currently in wide theatrical release. No home viewing release date as yet, but an educated guess is it’ll be available at premium rental rates [$20 - $25] beginning late August or September 2025, and at ordinary rates a month or so later. This is an “Apple Original Film", so streaming might be limited to AppleTV subscribers for a time.