REVIEW: “F1” (2025)

(Courtesy IGN India) 

Three things that separate the moviegoing experience from watching films on TV or mobile devices are the enhancement of picture, sound, and scale. Ditto how much more immersive the story is, whether on a regular screen, in 3D, or in IMAX. These are just some of the reasons that F1 ® is already one of the year’s best films. Headlined by Brad Pitt, directed by Joseph Kosinski, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the film follows a washed-up driver who gets back into Formula One racing after three decades. 

Opening with crashing waves on a beach and intercut with driver’s seat perspectives and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” Pitt’s Sonny Hayes is a gambling junkie who roams from race to race, looking for the next big win—but more for the thrill than for the paycheck, apparently. A beast behind the wheel, Hayes has made a lot of enemies as well. One day, an old friend and racing owner (Javier Bardem) shows up and gives him an opportunity to help a struggling team in London win. 

As Kosinski, Bruckheimer and company did with fighter jets in Top Gun: Maverick, IMAX cameras were specifically created and set up in and around the titular vehicles during filming. The result is a pumped-up experience with full-throttle racing sequences and sound design that put viewers right there in the cockpits with the drivers. (The IMAX presentation brims with speed and adrenaline. Not to mention a fueling score by Hans Zimmer.) F1 is also an exceptional and skillful piece of filmmaking and craft, from its dynamic camera work to slick editing, and carefully-planned logistics and pyrotechnics. 

With a sharp script by Kosinski and Ehren Kruger, the film benefits from a very linear plot with smart exposition (via news reels and ESPN specials), with a narrative literally and emotionally moving right along. Some genre beats may seem familiar. But Kosinski and his cast and crew manage to surprise us, showing how brilliant and effective storytelling is done. 

The same goes for the film’s cast of complex characters, including Bardem’s team owner Ruben Cervantes; Kerry Condon’s female technical director, Kate McKenna, who sees right through Sonny (although Pitt has clearly aged well, retaining his signature charm and charisma); and Damson Idris’s young rookie Joshua Pierce. 

Sonny and Joshua clearly hate each other’s guts and have numerous heated/harsh banters—sometimes out of the blue—due to arrogance, pride, and apparent “lone wolf” mentalities. With that in mind, F1 ® isn’t just a story of two emotionally-driven men (one old, one young) hanging on and enduring, despite what they’ve lost, opportunities they’ve missed, what they became, and what they are becoming. There’s also more than one set of races, trainings, and recoveries in the process, while the role of the media is described as “just noise.” 

In relation to filmmaking, any major sporting event takes more than one person—whether the star, the director, or the producer—to bring that story and experience to life. F1 ® highlights what it means to be a team, and how much of an effort is/should be put into it, from the roles of the pit crew to other team players. The film has moments that are empowering and awesome, while others remind us of what happens when reality hits people in the face, and how much more these characters have yet to learn, even as they question and/or contemplate why they do what they do, and who or what they do it for. 

Though they represent luck, the visual motif of decks of cards can also suggest hands these characters are dealt; other times, characters embrace the moments. F1 ® is jaw-dropping and very engrossing, balancing human drama, and visual and visceral adrenaline. It’s that good. Just keep your eyes on the tracks. 

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