'F1 The Movie' Is A Thrilling Commercial For Formula 1 That Doesn't Make Any Sense

Brad Pitt and Damson Idris star in this new sports drama that is both entertaining and pointless.

Halfway through a climactic race in “F1 The Movie,” something goes horribly wrong for our heroes. And yet, through a fluke of Formula 1’s complex and inscrutable rules, the underdog Apex Grand Prix team comes out on top. (Don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler. It’s a recurring theme throughout the two-and-a-half-hour-long film.)

In response to this surprising series of events, one character shouts out, “That makes no sense.”

Those four words apply to many of the scenes in “F1,” 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 “Top Gun: Maverick,” his latest film ultimately winds up feeling more like a commercial for Formula 1 than a great sports movie — even when it’s very entertaining.

At the start of “F1,” Hayes is living out of his van and drifting from race to race. The races and prizes don’t matter; he’s 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’s many convoluted rules to score a series of unexpected wins.

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’s 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.