Buckle up – the summer blockbuster is here. And if you’ve got the sense to see it in Imax double buckle up because you’ve just never seen the like. As regular readers will know I’m a sucker for race pictures – Grand Prix (1966) that invented the genre, Rush (2013) and Ford v Ferrari/Le Mans ’66 (2019) the top trio in my book. And all driven by interesting narrative, a shade too much soap opera in the first, a real-life on-track duel in the second, and the machinations of big business in the third. And the last two with scenes that took place outside the racetrack that have stuck in my mind since – in Rush Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) kicking into high gear in an ordinary motor to impress his soon-to-be wife, Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) taking Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) for a terrifying spin.
This one has jettisoned narrative complexity for thrills on the track and the sheer screen charisma of star Brad Pitt (Bullet Train, 2022) off it. For all my love of movies about motor racing I’ve never been compelled to watch any of the current F1 action or a single episode of the seven-season (and counting) Netflix series Drive to Survive, so my understanding of the rules is rather vague.
Here, you might come away with the notion that tires/tyres are more important than speed and that if you are mighty clever you can fry those rules within an inch of their lives and get away with it. And I’m not sure if the climactic set-up where the race is reduced to the equivalent of a golf play-off between four cars over three circuits of the track is actually a genuine element of the business.
So, ex-gambler thrice-divorced itinerant Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) who 30 years before was an up-and-coming Formula One Driver before an accident wrecked his career is tempted to return to the greatest arena of all by old buddy Ruben (Javier Bardem) whose racing team is on the point of collapse. He’s recruited as wing man to cocky up-and-coming talent Joshua (Damson Idris) who is repulsed by the idea of giving a second chance to an elderly citizen. The idea that Sonny will mentor the young guy is torpedoed when the younger ace nixes that notion.
But Sonny has got street smarts and knows how to win dirty. There are the usual reversals and obstacles, mostly self-imposed, before the team learn to back Sonny’s combat instinct.
And while the racing footage will take your breath away – even not seen in Imax it’s going to be a thundering visceral involving experience – it’s Brad Pitt who brings this one home. He’s one of only three surviving Hollywood stars, Leonard DiCaprio and Tom Cruise would be the others (though you could maybe make a case for Matt Damon), whose attachment can greenlight a picture and put the bucks into the box office.
Ever since a glorious entrance in Thelma and Louise (1991) he’s strode the Hollywood firmament like, as they say, a colossus, never taking the easy role, backing his own judgement, and often putting his own dough into projects (his Plan B shingle is one of the many production outfits credited here) and lighting up the screen with an easy charm.
Luckily, the screenplay by Ehren Kruger (Top Gun: Maverick, 2022) crackles and Pitt’s realism cuts through the social media engagement world inhabited by Joshua and the jargon-ridden world of the back-office team. “Hope isn’t a strategy,” he snaps. And there’s a lively verbal duel with designer Kate (Kerry Condon) and a couple of scenes where he takes what’s coming, especially from Joshua’s irate mum Bernadette (Sarah Nile), and one of those classic scenes where he dupes the youngster into thinking he’s won.
Usually enigmas aren’t this captivating, even Sonny can’t explain what drives him, but beyond a skeletal backstory, we don’t need to learn much about him because his whip smart delivery and scathing lines keep the audiences on their toes.
So Brad Pitt at the top of his game, excellent support from Javier Bardem (Dune: Part Two, 2024) and Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin, 2022). While Damson Idris (Snowfall, 2017-2023) isn’t in the breakout league of Glen Powell in Top Gun: Maverick, he still looks a talent to watch. Tobias Menzies (Outlander, 2014-2018) as a sneaky financier has a stand out supporting role.
Joseph Kosinksi (Top Gun: Maverick) does for earthbound speed what he did for supersonic speed in the Tom Cruise sequel.
Summer has arrived. Go see.
The Magnificent 60s 