Get ready for the visceral roar of engines and high-stakes drama in the world's most elite sport. "F1: The Movie" straps you into the cockpit for a heart-stopping ride, but does it cross the finish line with a flawless victory or spin out in the final lap? We dive into the film's electrifying race sequences, its probing of the psyches of drivers, and whether it delivers a story with enough horsepower to match the spectacle. More than a movie about racing, it's a gripping tale of obsession, legacy, and the thin line between glory and disaster.

Basic Deets

• Title: F1: The Movie
• Director: Some dude named Arthur P. Jacobson
• Key Cast: That guy from that show you like (Josh O'Connor), the intense one from the war movie (Jonathan Bailey), and a bunch of other beautiful people in fireproof onesies.
• Genre: Sports Drama? Biopic? Thriller? A weird smoothie blend of all three?
• Runtime: Actually 2 hours and 18 minutes./ Felt like 4 years.
• Release Date: Sometime this year, I dunno, my calendar is a mess.
• Rating: PG-13 for a lot of swearing muffled by engine noise and some steamy-but-chaste garage encounters.

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The Lowdown

Well. Do I have a wild story for you. Essentially the whole thing is just: hot-headed, sort-of-but-not-really-likeable but talented youngster (which would be Josh O’Connor's character: let's say "Cole" because his surname is no doubt as generic as his actual given one) tosses about in a mid-range Formula 1 racing outfit that's struggling....

His main issue, other than his terminal case of resting smug face, is that he has to partner up with this other driver, his teammate (Jonathan Bailey, all dark and stroppy), whom he just plain hates. As in loathes. As in wants to shove his face through a tire wall. This isn’t merely a case of friendly competition; no, this man hates his guts. The entire team seems ready to implode at the seams as the owner has won the award for Most Eloquently Tantrum-Throwing Man at the Track. Add to that his needing to keep his stellar season going as his pit-mate wants to plant him in the wall. The first order of business: underdog racing team. Comes standard as a free morsel for the genre: toxic racing duo. Standard issue. This.is not.

The Vibe

Ok, serious business. The atmosphere of this movie has got to be the best/worst case of schizophrenia. One minute it's like this HARD, Rush-esque character piece with gorgeous, rainy shots of Silverstone racing. Pardon me while I breathe in the fumes of passion. The very next minute it goes whole hog into Days of Thunder-land with the melodrama piled so thick you could build a road bed out of the whole mess. Then, suddenly.there are these strange montages going on under indie-folk tunes that seem to come from a whole different movie.

It's as if the writer/director couldn't decide what type of film he wanted to create. Well, instead of trying the best course of action and following one genre at a time, the director decided. wait for it. to blend all the genres together. All at once. In the blender. With a Nitro boost. This shouldn’t really work. This type of movie doesn’t really. Yet, man, it's quite entertaining to observe the whirlpool of loveliness.

Shout-Out

Well, let's give credit where credit's due. This film ain't all tire smoke and shattered dreams.

Let's start with the racing sequences. Oh. My. God. They are face-meltingly bonkers. I mean, we aren't looking at shots of the cars racing from a distance. No way. The camera is ON the cars. In the cars. In the helmet of the guy racing. Shaking so hard, your teeth fall out. The sound design is a thrill in and of itself – a living, breathing beast of screeching metal and pounding engines that just dwarfs the whole soundtrack. You can feel the shifts. The bumps. The heart-palpitations as the cars lock up. When Cole and his rival-teammate are racing each other at 200 mph, the movie reaches peak-levels of pure-transcendent cool. It's breathtaking. For those five minutes at a stretch, YOU'RE A Formula 1 racer. This movie puts you RIGHT THERE.

The acting!

Jonathan Bailey, honey. This man is doing the most possible with what he has been given. His character, the veteran, has the stilted movements of a wounded animal: silent intensity and repressed rage. Bailey shows the seams. The fear. The epiphany of a lifetime of training being stripped away. Josh O’Connor has his moments too. His role as the arrogant teenager isn’t original, but still. They share their moments together when the writing allows them to behave like actual human beings rather than shallow caricatures. The animosity is believable. Even the begrudging respect that develops has a strong basis in reality.

Moreover, the shout-out has to go to the production design. The whole paddock experience, the dingy look of the garage set interiors, the ridiculous amounts of detail that have gone into the cars – everything about this feels like the real thing. This ain't the clean-cut look at Formula 1 that we've been used to.

The Niggles

Ugh. Where to start? Fine. The story. For the love of all that is holy and good, the story. Now, I'm sure the sensation of being able to call each and every story point from the get-go has happened to someone at some point. Nope. Not me. Not in the case of F1: The Movie at least. This thing follows the.

• Grumpy veteran: check.

• Brash rookie? Check.

• Team on the brink of financial collapse?

• A large and exciting race that comes down to the final lap? Oh yes.

• An obligatory and completely unnecessary romantic subplot involving a feisty journalist characterized solely by the question "What are you feeling?" Oh, yes. This one's got nothing going for it. Its limpness rivals week-old lettuce.

“I just have to know” – exactly. So. Dang. Predictable. Even as someone who doesn’t require their films to be like embroidered Porsches built upon the back of a already elaborate Butterfly Effect Matrix thingamajig, I crave more than the painting-by-numbers routine we get here. Around the midpoint, Cole makes a move during a racing event that’s so monumentally stupid, so fantastically logically fallible, that I paused the thing and shouted at my television. “WHY IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! YOU HAVE ONE JOB!”

“And the dialogue, yo. Can be biting. Can be funny. Can also be outright cringe-worthy. The team owner has the worst lines of all. His delivery: sledgehammer cluelessness. ‘We’re not just building a car here, son. We’re building a dream.’ Ugh. Gag me with a spork. Seriously.”

Can we also talk about the thing that seems like a weird preoccupation: slow motion. I understand. Formula 1 cars are very pretty. However, the fifth time we get the slow-motion shot of the sparks flying from the underside as the car goes sliding across the horizon at sunset to the anguished strains of the pianos' lamentations in the soundtrack, I felt like I was being softened up like a rotten teenager by a sledgehammer. Where's the raw velocity, the mess of it all?!

Verdict

Well, finally, what's the final score here?

Man. This is a hard call. One half of me wants to lambast the thing for its hackiness and its troubled tonality. Another half can't deny the primal thrill the racing sequences deliver and the strong performances among the leads.

• **Final Rating: 6 “It's a flawed masterpiece of spectacle. Or a spectacular mess with moments of genius. Depending on the day you ask me."

• **Who's this for?

• • True F1 enthusiasts, the likes of whom will drool over the specs. Hard to quibble when the racing sequences.
• • Fans in search of a "turn your brain off" type of sporting picture that offers "big dumb fun" and fantastic sound.

• Anyone who has a crush on Josh O’Connor or Jonathan Bailey. They both look very good in racing suits. Who should run for the hills? Film snobs: people who prefer coherent and original storytelling. * Anyone who dislikes sports movie cliches. This movie has the most cliches. * Folks looking forward to a very insightful biographical film like the one we got for Senna over at cinewatched.com. This ain't that. My final piece of closing advice: Don't go in looking for high art. Go in looking for sensory overload. Turn up the volume loud. Make some popcorn. And just let the ridiculous nonsense soak your senses. It's a wild ride, even if you can't quite say where exactly you've been when the journey ends.

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References

1. Formula 1 Official Website - www.formula1.com
2. IMDB Page for F1: The Movie - www.imdb.com
3. Cinewatched Review of Senna - https://cinewatched.com/
4. Trailer for F1: The Movie - [YouTube Link]