F1

I wasn't even aware of this summer's F1 until a month or so ago.   Either Warner Brothers and Apple did a shitty job of marketing or I'm just out of the loop.  A really expensive event movie about Formula One racing starring Brad Pitt and directed by Joseph (TOP GUN MAVERICK) Kosinski? Old school alpha producer Jerry Bruckheimer was also back.  How did I not hear about this? But the buzz was building a week or so prior to the June release date.  Even the cineastes were raving.  Most of 'em anyway.

Pitt is Sonny Hayes, once an F1 ace who suffered a career ending wreck in the Spanish Grand Prix over thirty years ago.  He went through three wives and became a gambling addict in the fallout.  But still compelled to race.  As the film opens, he wins the famous 24 Hour contest at Daytona.   Enter Sonny's old F1 teammate, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) who now owns the APXGP team and offers him a spot.  Out of desperation as the team has been losing and is threatened with a sale.  Will Sonny accept and save the day?

You know.  But while Ehren Kruger's screenplay hits every cliche imaginable (bitter old coulda been, hothead young star, reluctant romantic interest, competing investor who offers Sonny a shot, etc.) in the come from behind underdog genre, it does what it needs to do.  This is good ol' comfort action cinema, designed to rouse audiences.  Kosinski knows how to mount such thrills.  Especially in IMAX (a must). There's another race every twenty minutes or so, and we're right in the cockpit with Pitt or Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), the up and comer with little patience for this arrogant old guy, alleged sage.  Or anything else.  Yep, JP will finally learn to fall back once in a while.  And Sonny will learn to be a team player, less of a uh, maverick.

I've heard maybe the film doesn't get all the details right, despite collaboration with the FIA.  You probably won't mind.  Also, that any serious social analysis of the screenplay is ill advised.

Kudos kudos kudos to D.P. Claudio Miranda and editor Stephen Mirrione.  They are as much to congratulate as anyone in front of or behind the camera. Hans Zimmer's score is also noteworthy and stirring.