Dubbed “the greatest that never was,” Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) was FORMULA 1’s most promising phenom of the 1990s until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, he’s a nomadic racer-for-hire when he’s approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), owner of a struggling FORMULA 1 team that is on the verge of collapse. Ruben convinces Sonny to come back to FORMULA 1 for one last shot at saving the team and being the best in the world. He’ll drive alongside Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), the team’s hotshot rookie intent on setting his own pace. But as the engines roar, Sonny’s past catches up with him and he finds that in FORMULA 1, your teammate is your fiercest competition—and the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.
What We Thought:
F1® The Movie will probably be the most fun I have at the theater this summer. It is a must see in IMAX and is a fantastic follow up to Top Gun Maverick for director Joseph Kosinski. It’s loud. It’s fast. It’s pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be.
I’m not much of a fan of auto racing. I know very little about Formula One racing and I still had a blast with this. The film opens with Brad Pitt driving fast to Led Zeppelin and I was instantly hooked. You don’t need to be a race fan to understand what’s going on, but I’m sure race fans will enjoy it too.
Pitt plays a once promising driver who had a horrific accident. Decades later he’s a driver for hire, going anywhere that will pay him. Javier Bardem plays the owner of a team that needs a new driver. They were teammates together when Pitt’s character suffered his accident. The team is made up of misfits, with the lead driver being a youngster who has all the talent in the world, but doesn’t have the car or ability to harness that talent. The lead developer is a woman which is unheard of in the male dominant world. It’s a classic underdog sports story with classic sports movie characters.
Going into it I wanted to enjoy it because I’ve enjoyed previous auto racing movies like Days of Thunder, Rush and Ford v Ferrari. Those movies have characters that are easy to root for in against all odds storytelling. That’s what this movie is as well. Pitt is still every bit the charismatic lead he’s been for decades now. As the could-have-been, but never-was, he’s extremely easy to root for. Bardem is just as charming and they make believable friends. Kerry Condon holds her own with them as well as does Damson Idris as the young hot head who clashes with his new American teammate. But it’s his character’s mother that might steal the film.
Add in the underdog story of the struggling team against the big teams (Ferrari, McLaren, etc.) and it’s easy to see why F1® The Movie is an absolute crowd pleaser. Sure it’s pretty formulaic, predictable and a bit cheesy (in a funny way), but what more do you want in a Summer Blockbuster? Hans Zimmer crushes the score and the film has a fantastic soundtrack. It’s absolutely stunning to look at with some of the best cinematography of the year. Like with Top Gun Maverick, Kosinski puts cameras in places we haven’t seen before and gives the audience a view that makes you feel like you’re in the driver’s seat. You’ll probably guess how it’s going to end, but at that point I was having so much fun with it I didn’t care how it ended. I saw it in IMAX and I insist you watch it that way too. The only complaint I have for it is that it should have been released for Father’s Day weekend because it’s the best “Dad Film” of 2025. For me it is a…
MUST SEE!
The Nerds Templar 