F1 | Review

First of all, I only watched this movie because Ric’s review totally got in my head — that hashtag of his, #peliplatbyric, literally dragged me all the way here. And second: I freaking love Tate McRae. Obviously I love Just Keep Watching too. So yeah… that’s why I’m here.

Review:
I went into this movie knowing literally nothing about Formula 1 — like, the only thing I really knew was Brazil’s legend, Ayrton Senna. I started the film hoping it would finally make me get into all the racing hype, like maybe this would be the push I needed to start following the championships.

And then… yeah. I ended up watching a movie filled with déjà-vu moments, like the same plot beats from Disney’s Planes, one of the Cars sequels, Fast & Furious… honestly anything that involves racing and competitions. Boring and predictable. Which makes me think this movie only survived because the topic is trending, it has a huge actor, and the marketing was massive — the promos, the soundtrack, all of it. Besides the tires, the only actually good thing is the VFX and the music, for sure.

And look, I get it: when you hear “Brad Pitt,” your brain instantly goes, “Oh yeah, this is gonna be a banger, no questions asked.” But if even Sydney Sweeney — who’s literally one of my bets for the best actresses of this generation — has rough patches and Madame Web on her résumé, then Brad Pitt absolutely has some boring movies out there that we just don’t talk about because they’re THAT forgettable.

Whenever I watch a movie, I refuse to see trailers, spoilers, or even the synopsis, because I wanna be surprised frame by frame. That’s how it was with a bunch of films this year — including I Know What You Did Last Summer (the new one) that critics hated. And that’s my point: I loved it. I didn’t know the original, so for me it was like: “Is this about a car crash? A killer? Wait, Madelyn Cline??” A bunch of jumpscares all the way through. I walked out like, “Dude, I almost pissed myself watching that, what the hell.”

So, here’s the thing: the only reasons F1: The Movie gets any stars from me are personal ones — Brad Pitt, Tate McRae’s Just Keep Watching, Madison Beer’s All At Once, and maybe the nostalgia of a random Sunday-afternoon TV movie vibe.

They have a huge actor, a “man who almost had it all and then lost everything” storyline, and then there’s the young Black guy who feels like he’s seconds away from saying, “Hey, I really wanna be here, I’m Black, things are harder for me.” And I’m saying this without trying to sound woke or whatever — it’s just always the same thing: the Black secondary character whose entire personality is just… being Black. We barely know anything about the other driver.

And then the ending is kinda a joke, because he suddenly falls in love with the blonde woman who barely has a story, just a quick summary of herself, and the guy who makes his whole comeback even possible is “the best friend.” Like… what? What kind of shallow script is this? Did they film this in 2013, shelve it, and drop it yesterday?

I loved the experience of being in Formula 1 — feeling like a driver, the tension, the wheels, the adrenaline — even if it’s exaggerated because movies always exaggerate everything. But the film falls into that classic rollercoaster formula: the protagonist almost wins → loses everything → old friend shows up with a miracle opportunity → he tries → he kinda succeeds → things go bad → he succeeds → things go bad again → REALLY bad → then suddenly he comes back with a triumphant final lap and wins it all. Like… wow.

So yeah. Boring.