[Nicolai P. Zwar]

F1 (Joseph Kosinksi, 2025) 9/10
I’ve got five weeks of Apple TV for free, though it’s during the Soccer World Championship, so I have to take what I can get. Won’t be watching too many movies, as I’ll be mostly watching games. Anyway, watched two things so far: HIJACK Season 1 (awful), and… wow, one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time.
Now, there are films you admire, and then there are films that tap you on the shoulder and say: this one is yours. So I can’t even be objective about it, but why would I. F1 did that to me. It’s mine.

Brad Pitt plays fictional race car driver Sonny Hayes. He’s a washed‑up has‑been, lives in a van, and gets by doing the occasional racing job. The movie doesn’t outright tell us a lot about this guy, but rather reveals him slowly over the course of the film without telling us too much about it. It’s rare that I identify with an on‑screen character so much…

I mean, I don’t drive race cars (though for years when I grew up, I watched every Formula 1 race there was and I wanted to become a race car driver), and I don’t live in a van… but I know the feeling of having missed chances, of getting another shot at something that’s been long in your past… so the movie hit a nerve. Sonny Hayes, that was me, or that could have been me. I understand this guy; he’s the definition of jaded. There’s an interview where he gives just monosyllabic responses… I get that… I’ve done that.

But this is not a character movie. It’s a spectacularly well‑done movie from the production house of Jerry Bruckheimer; it’s TOP GUN on wheels, and if there is one thing that Joseph Kosinski does better than anyone, it’s great‑looking movies with flashy and fast vehicles, be it the cool lightcycles from TRON: LEGACY, the bubble ship from OBLIVION, fighter jets in TOP GUN: MAVERICK, or now, Formula 1 race cars.

This is an exceptionally good‑looking movie. The racing sequences are shot with a clarity that avoids the usual genre temptation to shake the camera. Instead, the film images are sharp, crisp, clear…. The racing scenes are top‑notch… that’s what the movie is really about. The performances are all terrific, especially Javier Bardem as team owner and Kerry Condon as head mechanic and car designer.

And then there’s the music score. Hans Zimmer seems to be the one to go to for race car movies. He scored DAYS OF THUNDER, he scored RUSH (another great film), and now F1. This is one of his best yet; this guy was born to score race car movies. In his review on moviemusic.com, Jonathan Broxton wrote: “[…] the electronic sounds Zimmer makes seem to sometimes feel like high‑energy dance music, while at other times they appear to be directly influenced by engine noises; not in a ridiculous ‘vroom vroom’ or ‘neeeeeeow’ sort of way, but more as a reflection of the constant growling power that F1 drivers have at their disposal under their right foot.” Yeah, that sounds right. Excellent score, one that will go into my car for sure. Forget subtle; this is high‑octane music.

So the movie landed for me, I admit at least in parts because I love what it is about. I love racetracks, car racing, fast cars… I’ve actually been on some of the racetracks depicted in the movie (as a viewer, not as a driver).

So yes, F1 is a great film. You may easily say “but it’s not all that original or new, the story of some old‑timer who gets one more chance training a new guy isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel,” and you would be right. It’s great not because it’s original, but because it confidently knows why these tropes are so durable (because they are true) and how to push it all high‑octane to the floor. It’s the perfectly looking, sharp racing scenes that make this movie work. I had a blast.