When Top Gun: Maverick came out all of the hype surrounded Tom Cruise, but the actual director behind the film was Joseph Kosinski, whose previous work included Tron: Legacy and Oblivion. His resume has a lot of good not great in it, but it seems the success of Top Gun has given him a decent bit of street cred in Hollywood, enough to make his latest effort F1 one of the big movies of the summer. With the backing of Formula 1 as well as its star Brad Pitt, this is a big and exciting original summer blockbuster the likes of which we don't see often enough.
The film follows Sonny Hayes (Pitt) an aging racer three decades removed from his Formula 1 career, now bouncing around from league to league for whoever will give him a shot to race their cars. When an old friend Ruben (Javier Bardem) recruits him as a last ditch effort to save his failing F1 team, Hayes is forced to work alongside the young and arrogant Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) in hopes of bringing a win to their team.
Even if you didn't know Joseph Kosinski made this, you could probably infer that at least some of the Top Gun: Maverick team were behind this. It follows a very similar "experienced veteran who doesn't play by the rules/ arrogant newcomer with talent but no experience" story that we got with Tom Cruise and Miles Teller, mixed here with a bit of your classic underdog sports movie. Kosinski also cements himself as a very technically strong filmmaker, with the craft on display feeling consistently clean.
The narrative is where this probably falters the most thanks to just how by the numbers it feels. It follows so many of the same beats as Top Gun: Maverick all the way down to the forced and brief romantic subplot. Everything feels familiar, and alongside the romantic plot there are other storylines that are hinted at but not developed enough to do anything with them. Alongside how familiar the story beats are, Brad Pitt doesn't feel like a character, it feels like you're constantly just watching Brad Pitt, with his performance feeling like so many of his other ones. At the end of the day though, I'm not sure those shortcomings matter.
When it comes to a big summer blockbuster, sometimes you need a movie star more than you need an objectively strong performance where the lead disappears into the character. So much of this feels familiar but it still just works. It's the kind of movie that goes above its shortcomings to hook the audience from start to finish, and boy did my theatre have a ton of fun. The laughs were loud, there was clapping at the end, and when the quieter tense scenes came in my audience was dead silent. That's where Pitt and Kosinski thrive here, not in creating some high-art cinema but in creating something made for a big crowd to enjoy together.
The cast is a big part of why you get so invested in this. Pitt is playing himself it seems, but it's hard not to be hooked by his charisma. Damson Idris is basically playing that Miles Teller role and he's great at it, he's frustrating to watch as his cockiness fails to match his performance on the track, but as he grows as a character you grow to love him. Javier Bardem is always fun to watch, Kerry Condon has a big role and she kills it, and the ensemble is full of smaller characters that are just wildly likeable. There are also a bunch of real Formula 1 racers in this including Lewis Hamilton who also acted as one of the producers, so you get a bit of the real thing alongside all the acting performances.
It isn't just the cast that's great though, Kosinski's filmmaking is pretty great. The racing scenes are surprisingly tense for how predictable they often feel. The cinematography on display during the races is great and the sound design is phenomenal. It doesn't quite hit the heights of how loud Tom Cruise's fighter jet roared in the theatre, but it's pretty damn close, and there are moments of tension that are dead quiet which work incredibly well in contrast to those loud racing scenes. A great summer blockbuster needs a great musical score, and thankfully we are treated to new music from the great Hans Zimmer. I loved his work here, balancing some fun techno-esque sounds in the racing scenes with some old school dramatic music that feels straight out of the 90s/early 2000s. The soundtrack is great too whether it be old hits or new music that just nails the film's vibe.
This is just simply a great time, it's the perfect summer blockbuster even if it feels familiar and conventional. It'll get your heart pumping and your theatre cheering, go see it with a crowd and you'll almost certainly have a great time. 4/5
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