Movie Review: ‘F1 The Movie’

‘F1 The Movie’ receives 10 out of 10 stars

‘F1 The Movie’ directed by Joseph Kosinski (‘Top Gun: Maverick’) opens in theaters on June 27, 2025. The film stars Brad Pitt (‘Fight Club’), Javier Bardem (‘No Country for Old Men’), Kerry Condon (‘The Banshee of Inisherin’), Tobias Menzies (‘Game of Thrones’) and Damson Idris (‘Outside the Wire’).

Initial Thoughts

Director Joseph Kosinski masterfully put together a dream team, both in front of and behind the camera, to deliver a perfectly orchestrated high octane thrill ride that is expertly choreographed. The movie will pull you in and have you at the edge of your seats with excitement and have viewers cheering along with the race fans in the film. With a heartwarming underdog story and plenty of laughs in between, both new and old Formula One race fans will be taken on an adrenaline ride full of excitement.

Story and Direction

When the trailer for ‘F1 The Movie’ was released, it did an amazing job at building suspense, showing action packed moments and explaining the plot of the film. But in case you missed it, the film follows Sunny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a driver that is known as a bit of a reckless cowboy who never quite made it but appears to not have a care in the world, even if he is known as “the greatest that never was.” When Sunny’s old friend Ruben (Javier Bardem), a former driver turned team owner, is about to lose his team he turns to Sunny for help, offering him one last shot at being the best driver in the world. The pressure is on, and Sunny holds the fate of the entire team as well as the ego filled, up and coming driver and his Formula One teammate Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), in the palm of his hands. Keeping viewers in suspense all while waiting to discover if he will be able to save the team or if he will blow it all up to pieces.

When we meet Sunny he is leaving a race and seems to live moment to moment, without a care in the world, always heading to the next race. After deciding to join Ruben’s team, Sunny is the black sheep always moving to the beat of his own drum and not quite meshing with the extremely well-oiled pit and tech crew of the APXGP F1 team. Butting heads with the team’s technical director Kate (Kerry Condon), who has her own points to prove is fun to watch, but it’s the rival tension between Sunny and Joshua Pearce that becomes the driving force of what could make or break the fate of the entire F1 crew and the film itself.

Putting together the perfect crew of his own, Kosinski brings the same action-packed intensity he gave viewers with ‘Top Gun: Maverick” this time trading fighter jets for F1 cars and once again putting viewers directly in the driver’s seat. Working seamlessly with F1 creating an authentic experience for F1 fans, while also teaching a master class on F1 for viewers who don’t know anything about the sport was just one of the highlights of Kosinski’s excellent direction.

Taking a story about a team about to lose everything and carefully weaving the lives and careers of two drivers that couldn’t be more different is where the film builds an entirely different sort of tension and experience that every movie fan will utterly enjoy. Each morsel of information or backstory given feeling as if it was earned by trust, making you feel as if you are part of the process, like a gift from the film to its viewer.

But it is in the third act of the film that Kosinski’s craft of perfection is truly shown to its fullest. Taking powerful and action-packed adrenaline-fueled driving sequences and carefully sewing them between emotionally driven heart tugging moments that will keep viewers at the edge of their seats with bated breath. Putting both Brad Pitt and Damson Idris in the drivers seat of an actual Formula One car at 200 MPH, may have been a risk, but the payoff was the reward of once again delivering audiences both extraordinary action sequences with an authentic and visceral F1 experience.

Performances

Brad Pitt gives a brilliant performance as Sunny Hayes, he is the perfect fit as the icon, the rough and tumble cowboy driver who has nothing and everything to lose. Pitt has been known for his love of both driving and speed over the years and looks completely comfortable in the driver’s seat even at top speeds. His performance in the final sequence of the film is what had the potential to make or break the film as a whole, and he met it with passion and brilliance that left a long lasting impression.

Damson Idris nails the cocky and arrogant, while still wet behind the ear’s teammate Joshua Pearce. He brought emotion and depth to an extremely layered character and held his own in every scene. Kerry Condon was perfection as the team’s first female technical director who’s lost her confidence and feels like she has something to prove. And the scenes of her character sparring with Pitts character were always enjoyable.

But there is something about Javier Bardem’s performance that to me ties everything together on an emotional level in the end that stands out on its own and should be applauded. Because in the end it’s all about the love of driving.

Final Thoughts

When you think about what they did to achieve the authenticity of this film it is absolutely extraordinary. They took an idea and a story and to make that a reality they quite literally embedded an entire film crew into a F1 season on every track, in every country all while maintaining the integrity of a sport. They put actors in F1 cars at top speeds alongside F1 drivers and crews, with F1 fans in the stands. All to give viewers the ride of their lives. They took shots in minutes that most movies take a day just to set up. The sheer magnitude of that alone should have movie fans everywhere lining up to see this film on the big screen.

Kosinski alongside producer Jerry Bruckheimer (‘Top Gun: Maverick’) and seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton took every vital step and then some to give audiences the most authentic and what Pitt calls “the most visceral driving experience that’s ever been put on film.” With an almost nostalgic feel of the best action movies of the 80’s and 90’s paired with an incredible and at times heart pumping score from Hans Zimmer paced perfectly in every scene, ‘F1 The Movie’ is everything I want in a movie going experience and should be experienced in the theatre.

What is the plot of ‘F1”?

Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a Formula One driver who raced in the 1990s, has a horrible crash, forcing him to retire from Formula One and start racing in other disciplines. A Formula One team owner and friend, Ruben (Javier Bardem), contacts Hayes and asks him to come out of retirement to mentor rookie prodigy Joshua “Noah” Pearce (Damson Idris) for the Apex Grand Prix team (APXGP).

Who is in the cast of ‘F1 The Movie’?

Director/Producer Joseph Kosinski on the set of Apple Original Films’ ‘F1,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

List of Joseph Kosinski Movies:

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