F1: Movie Review

Cast: Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Kerry Condon, Damson Idris

Director: Joseph Kosinski

In many ways the racing film has become largely narratively redundant.

An underdog story in whatever form it takes with the inevitable mix of racing and a diabolical crash that threatens everything, its beats are obvious to all.

So it is with F1 the movie, a film that brings nothing new to the genre and despite the promises of its director to take you further into immersion than you've ever been before and yet somehow offers nothing different to donning a VR helmet and playing PlayStation's Gran Turismo series.

What it does have - aside from a fawning approach to glamourising the world of the track so much that it becomes a corporate video extolling its brilliance - is the laconic charm of Brad Pitt as washed-up racer Sonny Hayes.

With his surfer sunglasses, physique and laid back attitude Pitt exudes calm - albeit too much for a man whose demons are supposed to haunt him early on in the film.

Offered a chance by former colleague and now struggling team owner Ruben Cervantes (Bardem) to recapture his glory days and slay that white whale of defeat once and for all, Hayes finds himself embedded in the world of Formula 1 and in a team that doesn't want him complete with a rising star colleague who resents him.

But as Hayes brings his own unique style of maverick (and somewhat underhand) behaviour to the sport, is he doing what's best for him or for the team?

F1 the movie is cliché riddled with perfunctory dialogue that is as shallow as it comes. From exposition spouted by commentators as track voiceover and races that are reduced to truncated moments rather than a full-on event, the film finds itself saddled with elements of shallowness that are hard to shake.

And while the action is immersive enough and as high octane as you'd expect from a production scared to upset its endorsers, there's little tension on the track to warrant real suspense.

Off track doesn't fare much better unfortunately.

But in scenes where Pitt engages with others  - chiefly love interest and team head technician Kate, played by Kerry Condon with warmth and heart there's a hint of what this redemption story could have been, rather than a cursory once-over the tropes of the genre.

Sadly though this is a film less interested in those vignettes and keener on impressing petrolheads revved up on Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive.

Consequently this Pitt stop ends up feeling like nothing new, like a race has been run many times before and with results that are obvious to see from anyone who's ever watched any sporting underdog movie ever made.