![\"Pitt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/68599873190000ef60247f2b.jpeg\")
Pitt plays a washed-up race car driver in \u201cF1 The Movie.\u201d<\/p>\nThis article originally ran in June. HuffPost is republishing it now that it is streaming on Apple TV.<\/p>\n
Halfway through a climactic race in \u201cF1 The Movie,\u201d something goes horribly wrong for our heroes. And yet, through a fluke of Formula 1\u2019s complex and inscrutable rules, the underdog Apex Grand Prix team comes out on top. (Don\u2019t worry, this isn\u2019t a spoiler. It\u2019s a recurring theme throughout the two-and-a-half-hour-long film.)<\/p>\n
In response to this surprising series of events, one character shouts out, \u201cThat makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those four words apply to many of the scenes in \u201cF1,\u201d which tells the story of a washed-up race car driver named Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) who gets recruited to join a struggling team owned by his old friend Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem). While director Joseph Kosinski does his best to inject the same breakneck-speed energy here that he brought to \u201cTop Gun: Maverick,\u201d his latest film ultimately winds up feeling more like a commercial for Formula 1 than a great sports movie \u2014 even when it\u2019s very entertaining.<\/p>\n
Pitt plays a washed-up race car driver in \u201cF1 The Movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n
At the start of \u201cF1,\u201d Hayes is living out of his van and drifting from race to race. The races and prizes don\u2019t matter; he\u2019s just interested in the thrill of driving fast and beating the competition. At first, Pitt plays the character with a careful balance of sadness and braggadocio, but any signs of humility quickly wash away as soon as Hayes returns to Formula 1, where he cleverly exploits the sport\u2019s many convoluted rules to score a series of upsets. <\/p>\n
Hayes joins a failing team on the verge of total collapse due to a vehicle design in desperate need of an upgrade and an inexperienced driver with too much confidence. Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) is a perfect foil for Pitt\u2019s Hayes, a cocky sports star more interested in going viral on social media than in winning races, and Idris plays the role flawlessly, which is a good thing because their actual competition is totally devoid of personality.<\/p>\n
Throughout \u201cF1,\u201d Pearce and Hayes race against dozens of other drivers on beautiful tracks all over the world. None of those drivers gets even a single line of dialogue to convey their own motivations. They\u2019re basically the equivalent of computer-controlled enemy characters in a racing video game, rather than actual antagonists in a movie. It\u2019s possible this is an intentional decision by Kosinski or screenwriter Ehren Kruger to emphasize how the sport of Formula 1 is ultimately a psychological battle against oneself \u2014 mental and physical training will only get you so far when you\u2019re jammed into a hot metal box whipping around a track at absurd speeds \u2014 but that doesn\u2019t exactly make for good filmmaking. Heroes need villains. (\u201cF1\u201d does eventually get around to establishing a villain, but we don\u2019t learn enough to care much about him either.) <\/p>\n
On the plus side, \u201cF1\u201d is an audio-visual feast. Kosinski\u2019s skill at filming the jet fighter planes in \u201cTop Gun: Maverick\u201d translates well into the world of Formula 1. Each race (and there are many) will have you leaning forward in your seat and holding your breath. One moment in particular, where Hayes flies across the track in total silence is still seared into my memory, a perfect representation of the way man and technology become one to achieve something wholly unique to this sport. <\/p>\n
![\"Idris\u2019](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/68599883190000378c881cef.jpeg\")
Idris\u2019 Pearce begins \u201cF1 The Movie\u201d as a cocky sports star more interested in going viral on social media than in winning races.<\/p>\n
Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, composer Hans Zimmer delivers yet another incredible score, this time full of synth and heavy bass. When Zimmer isn\u2019t transforming the movie into a European nightclub, \u201cF1\u201d sprinkles in a handful of classic rock songs that reinforce Pitt\u2019s persona: simultaneously over the hill and at the height of his power.<\/p>\n
\u201cF1\u201d offers plenty to love, including a great cast, thrilling set pieces and beautiful visuals. However, if you\u2019re not already watching Formula 1, this film is unlikely to convert you. It\u2019s too interested in the minutiae of the sport to bother explaining its basic appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cF1\u201d sometimes gets so bogged down in the rules of the sport that it risks alienating casual audiences. Die-hard fans of the real thing may enjoy its dramatized portrayal, but for the rest of us, \u201cF1\u201d is a fun distraction that ultimately makes no sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cF1 The Movie\u201d is streaming on Apple TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article originally ran in June. HuffPost is republishing it now that it is streaming on Apple TV.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[3491,49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-343275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-brad-pitt","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}