Competition at cinemas is fierce this weekend, with movies like M3GAN 2.0, 28 Years Later, Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning, How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch, and Elio occupying silver-screen real estate. However, only one movie hails from the director of Top Gun: Maverick, the Formula 1 racing drama F1, starring Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Javier Bardem, and Kerry Condon.
Joseph Kosinski directs F1 from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger, based on a story by Kosinski and Kruger. The pulse-pounding follow-up to Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick is already a smash hit with critics, currently hugging the lane with an 84% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 97% Fresh score on the Popcornmeter. People are saying F1 does for racing what Top Gun: Maverick did for mach-speed flight drama, and seeing the film in an IMAX theater is highly recommended.
Our editor-in-chief, Chris Bumbray, gave F1 a 9/10 in his review, saying that Kosinski’s film is “one of the most awe-inspiring works of pure spectacle seen on the big screen in years. It’s stunning to look at, and the IMAX ratio makes the racing scenes feel like a rollercoaster ride.” He also stated, “It can’t be denied that F1 is an absolute rollercoaster ride of a movie, and – like Sinners – helps make the case for theatres still being essential to a particular kind of filmmaking. Hopefully, this is the blockbuster hit it deserves to be.”
Chris had such a blast with the IMAX presentation of F1 that he wrote a column about why the premiere viewing format is a must for cinephiles. You can read Chris’ column here.
The synopsis for F1 reads, “Dubbed ‘the greatest that never was,’ Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) was FORMULA 1’s most promising phenom of the 1990s until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, he’s a nomadic racer-for-hire when he’s approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), owner of a struggling FORMULA 1 team that is on the verge of collapse. Ruben convinces Sonny to come back to FORMULA 1 for one last shot at saving the team and being the best in the world. He’ll drive alongside Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), the team’s hotshot rookie intent on setting his own pace. But as the engines roar, Sonny’s past catches up with him and he finds that in FORMULA 1, your teammate is your fiercest competition—and the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.”
While you already know what we think about F1, we want you to share your thoughts in the comments below. Do you think F1 is as exhilarating as Top Gun: Maverick? Will you go out of your way to see F1 in an IMAX theater? Inquiring minds want to know!
