Movie Review: F1: THE MOVIE

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: June 27th, 2025 / 04:43 PM

F1: THE MOVIE movie poster | ©2025 Apple Films / Warner Bros.

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem, Tobias Menzies, Kim Bodnia, Sarah Niles, Callie Cooke, Abdul Salis, Samson Kayo
Writer: Ehren Kruger, story by Joseph Kosinski & Ehren Kruger
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Distributor: Warner Bros./Apple Films
Release Date: June 27, 2025

F1 is short for Formula One, which is described by Wikipedia as “the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.”

F1: THE MOVIE is also the title of a well-made but very formulaic film about the sport. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, who co-wrote the story with screenwriter Ehren Kruger, F1 checks so many boxes of genre convention that to list them all would take us straight through the narrative.

We have a rugged, down-on-his-luck protagonist, Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who at first resists a chance to redeem himself. Sonny has a tragic past, and even though Formula One is a team sport, he’s not a team player. Instead, he’s in one-and-done NASCAR races, or even smaller ones.

Enter Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), Sonny’s old friend. Ruben is incredibly rich on paper, but about to go broke and have his Formula One team sold out from under him.

Ruben has a great but novice young driver in British Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), but he needs Sonny’s experience to have even a prayer of getting to the top tier.

Sonny initially refuses, but at the last minute changes his mind.

Things between Sonny and Joshua go about how we expect. So do things between Joshua and Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), the team’s chief engineer. There’s a bad guy, there are harrowing setbacks, and other plot mechanisms that we anticipate.

Thanks to director Joseph Kosinski (whose previous credits include TOP GUN: MAVERICK), the racing sequences are cinematic and exciting.

The screenplay by Ehren Kruger, who crafted the story with Kosinski, occasionally provides some snappy dialogue. However, the filmmakers unwisely attempt to wring tension from scenes where Cervantes, McKenna and their crew, sitting at their monitors, go into heavy tech-speak. For Formula One race fans, this may be engrossing; for everyone else, it’s as if the characters are suddenly having a passionate debate in ancient Sanskrit.

Pitt’s Sonny is meant to be too cool for school but with a core of sorrow. The actor delivers on these intentions. Idris is charismatic as the cocky, social media-savvy Joshua, Bardem is hearty, Condon is continually intriguing, and Tobias Menzies is enjoyable as Bardem’s advisor.

F1: THE MOVIE runs two hours and thirty-five minutes. In all that time, it doesn’t go into how and why it’s necessary for drivers to be top-flight athletes or much of anything else that will help non-racing-fan viewers feel a sense of urgency about the this visually spectacular but dangerous pursuit. It’s got bursts of speed, but it sets itself a bumpy course overall.

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