Brad Pitt’s F1 is the big, dumb racing movie America’s been waiting for. If you can stomach the sports movie clichés, you’ll probably have a good time.
Released under the dignified tagline of “sports drama,” Apple’s F1 is, at best, a camp classic in the making. Only Mystery Science Theater 3000 could do sardonic justice to this torrent of macho movie clichés patched together by an old hack producer, Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun) — who never lost money underestimating the intelligence of the general public — and younger hack director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick).
The result is a silly male-bonding spectacle on a lavish scale. Of course, there’s a certain fascination in watching rivers of money go by, and everything in F1 looks absurdly expensive and inflated. You could house villages in the enormous hotel rooms in various exotic settings where the members of a failing Formula One racing team are staying. Brad Pitt, playing Sonny Hayes, the maverick itinerant driver for hire brought in to salvage that team, has had so much work done on his face, that alone must’ve been a startling line item in the movie’s budget, which is rumored to be as high as $300 million.
It’s Apple’s biggest film yet — they’ve now officially got a hit on their hands with a $140 million opening weekend. A ludicrous hit, but when have Hollywood types ever minded that? Plus, it’s such an advantage to make a movie that functions as a very long commercial for Apple’s AirPods Max, which are glued to Pitt’s ears for much of the film’s running time.
Though there are definitely moments when you wonder how genuinely talented actors can bear to do this kind of crap. Poor Javier Bardem, he really had to earn his huge payday! He plays Ruben Cervantes, once a racecar driver, now the sharply dressed owner of a failing team who brings in his old friend…
Auteur: Eileen Jones
