Cat Chats: F1 The Movie

AKA Javier Bardem out visual spectacles the visual spectacle of it all

⭐⭐⭐▪️▪️

High octane, and FUN, this movie doesn’t linger on the brake pedal. I just wish the engine matched the paint job.

This film really starts off our summer blockbuster run with confidence. Loud, colourful, and high octane, F1 really shines in it’s own immersivity. With the Netflix show F1: Drive to Survive giving the sport a huge new audience that has been steadily growing since 2018. F1 racing is hotter than ever. And this, if anything, is a love letter to fans of the sport. (It feels that way anyway, but this is coming from someone who knows nothing about racing other than the fact these drivers are high performance athletes).

The cast mainly have great chemistry, (Javier Bardem is quite the visual spectacle.) But it was Damson Idris I was looking out for. He makes a convincing turn as a man with everything to lose, surprisingly vulnerable but still acerbic in youth.

While blockbusters like this are really designed for spectacle over substance, which it gave us in spades. The lack of any emotional anchor in the narrative left it floundering in its quiet moments. With the technology, the soundtrack, the work, and the money that has clearly gone into this film, it’s frustrating that the story at its heart doesn’t hold the same weight.

My issues mainly lie with Brad Pitt’s character Sonny Hayes. As a film, F1 is easily comparable to Kosinski’s previous work Top Gun: Maverick. Flexing masculinity, performance sports, and our main man wooing his love interest. It’s the original recipe for a Blockbuster film, and it works (at least to a certain capacity). But unlike Maverick, we don’t have an original film to bolster Sonny’s character. There’s no lore to help make him feel 3-dimensional. Unlike Idris’ character, Joshua, there is nothing to root for, no emotional root. This isn’t an ‘underdog’ story. We’re watching a Mary-Sue.

In between the (I’ll say this again and again) quite frankly incredible race sequences, the narrative skirts around Sonny’s purpose, and his place in life. For a film that spent so long filming on location during qualifiers and at actual races, Sonny is like a sudden cold shower of movie magic. He’s not a mentor, or a foil, or even the ‘underdog’ as the marketing indicates; he’s a man 30 years out the drivers seat of an F1 vehicle suddenly coming back and getting poll positions. It’s a bit of a fan fiction. A middle aged ‘man’-fiction if you will. Incredibly enjoyable, but frustrating all the same. This lack of depth also feels insulting to Joshua, who feels like he’s cut short from any real growth by being a side character.

Another character I felt like they massively fumbled was Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), the teams technical director. She’s introduced as the worlds first woman in such a senior tech role… Only for Pitt to call her car a ‘shitbox’ and hold her hand to create the car in which they win (manfiction strikes again). Not only did her marriage fall apart after she took the job (gasp, of course women in high positions can’t have happy relationships), she’s presented as almost fawning over the American after they sleep together. Laying her head on his bicep while he looks out angsty over the city skyline. Though she remains professional, there is still a moment at the end where she rushes breathless to his room to ask him to stay, while he smirks over her head nonchalantly.

Despite the lack of any bite in the narrative, the sheer scale and wonder of the rest of the film really brings it to life. The camera work and editing in the races is incredibly done, and it’s quite literally has you on the edge of your seat most of the film. Ultimately F1 is endlessly rewatchable, easily digestible, and FUN. Yet, it’s revving on an empty tank, when the noise dies down it’s just a lose exhaust.