F1 - Wonderfully Done Sports Drama that Would Entertain Even The Non-Fan

Three days ago this Hollywood film was released in Indonesia along with another one that were both interesting to me. Since yesterday was public holiday, my wife and I decided to have another one of our movie marathon. I have set my mind to see this in the studio with Dolby Atmos system since I was sure it would be more satisfying. All right then, let's get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt - Wolfs, Bullet Train etc) was former Formula 1 driver who was forced to retire in the 1990s and later became nomad driver racer for various kind of races across the US. When his former team mate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem - Dune, Pirates of the Carribbean: Salazar's Revenge etc), owner of APXGP F1 team asked him to join and help them improve their position otherwise the team would be dissolved, Sonny was very reluctant but ultimately agreed to help.

At first Sonny had a bit of trouble adjusting due to long time never handling the F1 vehicle. However he managed to convince the team principal Kaspar Smolinski (Kim Bodnia - Killing Eve TV series, Nightwatch etc), technical director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon - Bad Samaritan, Better Call Saul TV series etc) and other team members. Although his arrival did make the prime driver and talented rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris - Outside the Wire, Farming etc) unhappy. Obviously it would not be smooth sailing as Sonny had to prove his worth for the team and his rivalry with Joshua added further complication.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

As expected, this movie was highly entertaining. Now I am not a fan of F1 racing, although I do occassionally read news about them and knew several major racers in the past, which was why I was not surprised to see some of their names mentioned during the racing. The best part about this movie for me was not on their brief appearances, but more about the racing and the story. The way the story was told was wonderful and amazingly it was not that difficult to understand the racing itself and we found ourselves caught in the intensity of the race and the smart way of winning using allowed strategies.

During the whole movie, it was not only filled with racings but also the drama about Sonny's personal struggle, relationship with his new team, rivalry with Joshua and even a bit of twist & brief romance to add spice to the film. What I admired the most though that despite its long duration (156 minutes), it never got boring unlike few sports drama that sometimes had uninteresting side story which made us lose interest (even my wife was so caught up and never glimpsed at her handphone). Obviously the racings were what made us captivated and the awesome Dolby Atmos sound effect totally made it a wonderful experience.

This film would not have been fun if it was not for the directing by Joseph Kosinski the person behind Top Gun: Maverick, Only the Brave and few others. The screenwriter was Ehren Kruger whose previous writing credits included The Ring, Dumbo and plenty others. I also noticed the name of Hans Zimmer in the musical score which would explain the great background music throughout the film. Apart from the persons I mentioned above, there were also supporting cast like Tobias Menzies (Underworld: Blood Wars, The Crown TV series etc) as Peter Banning one of APXGP board member, Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso TV series etc) and Samson Kayo (Our Flag Means Death TV series etc) as Joshua's mother Bernadette Pearce and cousin/manager Cashman respectively and several others. But the ones who would definitely please F1 enthusiasts would be the real life drivers and team personnels from Ferrari, Williams and so on, including 7 times world champion Lewis Hamilton who was credited as one of the producers.

For a sports drama, this one was well received not only by critics but also audience. I think it would have the legs to become a box office hit, although it might not be able to recoup its huge budget (some said it was between USD 200-300 million). Btw it was branded as Apple original film so it would likely be released on their streaming platform soon. Overall this was an exciting sports drama movie that was equally entertaining as well as fascinating. The racing was greatly done, the characters were interesting and the story was enjoyable. It had a nicely done ending that my wife felt was rather cliche but still satisfying. There was no post end credit scene which I thought was not necessary anyway, but during the closing credits, there were some pretty well done racing scenes shown. So if you are interested in watching this kind of movie, I believe you would be entertained by the film just like my wife and I were. It was fun even if you are not fan of F1 racing.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars