High-speed, low-surprise

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, June 27th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming up on The World and Everything in It, fast cars, flawed character.

Brad Pitt hits the gas in a new summer film that blends high-speed thrills with a familiar storyline. He plays an aging speedster trying to rescue a failing Formula One team. But at what cost? Here’s WORLD arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino.

COLLIN GARBARINO: In F1, Brad Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a veteran racer willing to drive any kind of car in any kind of race. But despite his skill behind the wheel, he’s been out of formula racing for 30 years. Then his old friend Ruben, played by Javier Bardem, shows up asking for a favor. Ruben owns a struggling Formula One team called Apex GP, and he wants Sonny to drive for him. Ruben’s desperate. If he doesn’t win one of the next nine races, his board will force him to sell the team.

SONNY: You’ve got an entire assembly line worth of kids raised on the simulator.

RUBEN: No, I don’t have time for some kid to learn how to come in tenth. I don’t.

SONNY: Well, you don’t just walk off the street and pilot a rocket.

RUBEN: Yes, you can if you’ve done it before.

Not everyone at Apex is happy to see Sonny. Damson Idris plays the team’s No. 1 driver, Joshua Pearce. Joshua’s confidence is already shaky due to Apex’s poor performance. And having the coolly confident Sonny strutting about the garage further unnerves him. A rivalry quickly develops between the talented rookie and the battle-tested veteran.

JOSHUA: When was the last time you won a race?

SONNY: Sunday. Daytona.

JOSHUA: Oh. I’m sorry. I meant Formula One.

SONNY: Oh. I’m sorry. Then same as you.

[laughter]

F1’s central conflict revolves around this intergenerational rivalry. Sonny and Joshua must learn to trust each other and work as a team to give Apex a win.

KATE: What’s the difference between Joshua Pearce and Sonny Hayes?

JOSHUA: A lot of decades.

SONNY: Hard won experience.

JOSHUA: Of living in a van?

SONNY: Says the guy who still lives with his mom.

This basic plot in which a grizzled veteran shows a young kid the ropes might remind you of 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. There’s a good reason for that. The two films share the same creative team. Moreover, like Top Gun: Maverick, F1 is technically splendid, and the film is best seen on an IMAX screen. You can almost feel the g-forces as the cars race around corners at ludicrous speeds.

Much of the filming took place during the 2023 Formula One season, and the movie is filled with glimpses of real racing teams and cameos of top racers like Lewis Hamilton and Max VerStappen. Racing fans will also appreciate the scenes filmed in authentic F1 training and design centers. Innovative cameras capture Pitt and Idris doing their own driving behind the wheels of the modified formula cars.

Some folks might appreciate that this film gets a little technical about the importance of tire condition and the intricacies of Formula One’s rules. But diehard racing fans will wonder why no one questions whether Sonny has the FIA Super License needed for competition.

RUBEN: I’m sorry, Ruben, for demolishing not one, but both of your lovely cars… for coming back into your life, only to destroy it. Is this your revenge for Monaco?

SONNY: Yeah, I waited 30 years and came all this way to humiliate myself on global television.

Despite an abundance of PG-13 language, the film is fun to watch. But honestly the story doesn’t contain many surprises. It sticks to the same formula—no pun intended—used by just about every other racing movie. Have you seen Ford v. Ferrari, Gran Turismo, or even Pixar’s Cars? If so, you more or less know what to expect. However, the film struggles to find the prerequisite bad guy. There’s no grudges or rivalries with the other teams. Perhaps none of those real life racers wanted to be depicted as jerks. Instead, the movie’s tension comes from within the team.

SONNY: Listen, he’s cocky. He’s arrogant. He’s got a lot to learn.

RUBEN: You were cocky. You were arrogant. And you had a lot to learn.

SONNY: I’m not here to hold anyone’s hand. I’m here to race.

RUBEN: No you’re not, Sonny. You’re here to give me a heart attack.

There’s nothing wrong with the theme of developing teamwork to achieve a goal. But F1 has some dubious morality… and I’m not even talking about Sonny’s love affair with the team’s female technical director. Winning is so important to Sonny that he’s willing to race dirty. At times he employs a brilliant and creative strategy, but it’s still dirty. The film also glorifies the pursuit of personal passion at the expense of others. We’re meant to admire Sonny’s single mindedness, but essentially he’s left home and family behind for the sake of racing. The movie thinks it’s being inspiring, but in the end I felt a little sad watching an old man sacrifice relationships to chase fleeting feelings.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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