I never saw Grand Prix (1966), which was nominated for three prizes at the 39th Academy Awards where it won three Oscars, including Best Sound, Best Sound Effects and Best Film Editing. I never saw it, but it clearly set a bar for technical excellence when it comes to these kinds of films. That 1966 flick was about Formula One racing, which is the top form of motorsport that exists, and isn't that far removed from NASCAR. The first film that made me aware of NASCAR was Days of Thunder (1990), which starred Tom Cruise and was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Cruise would make a film with Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire (1994), which certainly put them on rather parallel tracks. They've since wildly diverged, but it feels at times as if they're following each other in one way or another. Bruckheimer would team up with Cruise again in Top Gun: Maverick (2022), which grossed nearly $1.5 billion and got nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, winning Best Sound.
Joseph Kosinski directed Top Gun: Maverick. Given its success, a sequel to that 2022 blockbuster is being planned and will likely get produced. Anytime a success like Top Gun: Maverick happens, Hollywood always tries to replicate that success. A sequel is the obvious next step, but using the template of Top Gun: Maverick and attempting to tweak it or adjust it, so that something original or different can be made, is Hollywood's usual tactic. Hollywood wants a winning template. Thus, this film was born. Top Gun: Maverick was about a Navy pilot in his late 50's who flies one of the fastest planes in the world. He then has to work with younger pilots and one younger pilot in particular. There's a generational divide but also personal issues that make it a contentious relationship. The older pilot and the younger one then have to learn to work together to accomplish a mission. Along the way, there are a lot of sequences of people in single-seat vehicles with helmets and traveling very fast. This big-screen follow-up from the same director who is this time a writer on the film has that exact template repeated.
Brad Pitt (World War Z and Ocean's Eleven) stars as Sonny Hayes, an ex-Formula One racer who left the sport in the 90's, specifically after a bad crash. He became a gambling addict and had a series of marriages and other failed relationships with women. He's spent the following thirty years avoiding Formula One but still does motorsports. For example, the film starts with him doing the "24 Hours of Daytona." His next goal is to compete in the "Baja 1000," which is a race in Mexico that takes place, not on a track but off-road. Sonny lives in his van. He doesn't seem to have a home. He's a nomad who goes from race to race all over the country.
A former teammate that he knew from back in the 90's shows up. It's Ruben Cervantes, played by Javier Bardem (Dune: Part Two and Skyfall). Ruben is now the owner of a Formula One team called APXGP and approaches his former friend with a job offer to be on that team. There's some hesitancy for Sonny, but race-car driving is his passion. It's the thing he loves the most. Even though he's avoided Formula One because of the crash, he can't resist the offer ultimately. However, he's an old school guy and likes doing things in an old school way. He's as much a maverick as Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. In fact, Sonny might be even more of a maverick, as he's charmingly defiant and amusingly disobedient. Cruise's 2022 character was a military officer who had a level of discipline and respect for authority that Sonny lacks.
Damson Idris (Snowfall and Outside the Wire) co-stars as Joshua Pearce, a rookie race-car driver who is on the APXGP team. He's a rising celebrity in the sport. In fact, unlike Sonny, Joshua appears to be in the sport for the fame and fortune. If Sonny is old school, then Joshua is absolutely new school who is more about publicity and looking good on social media. He's all about the sport as well and would be willing literally to die for it. Yet, there's this aspect that suggests Joshua's passion or dedication isn't as strong as Sonny's, meaning that Joshua is more about the celebrity than the sport of it. I'm not sure that Kosinski's film develops this aspect in the storytelling all that well. Sonny can be who he is because he is a nomad with no family, no wife, no children to support or anyone for which to be accountable socially or personally. Joshua has his mother, Bernadette, played by Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso and I May Destroy You), and he has his cousin and manager, Cashman, played by Samson Kayo (House of the Dragon and Our Flag Means Death).
If there's anything to Joshua's character that seems pronounced, it's his cockiness. Joshua's arrogance seems to get in the way somehow of his inability to progress or is somehow hindering APXGP from advancing and getting on the leader-board or scoring points in their races. However, his principle problem appears to be ageism. There's at least a 20-year age gap and maybe even a 30-year age gap between Joshua and Sonny. Joshua starts out upon meeting Sonny commenting on his age and being against Sonny because he's older. This brings us back to Top Gun: Maverick because a similar rivalry existed between Cruise's character and Miles Teller's character. A similar age gap exists between Cruise and Teller, and yes, ageism was an element in that 2022 film, but Top Gun: Maverick gave another reason for the rivalry or bitterness between them. This film doesn't have any other reason. Here, it is pure ageism and nothing else. Eventually, it builds to Joshua being jealous of Sonny's success and Sonny's rise in the ranks, but they're on the same team, so one would think the rivalry is a little odd
Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin and Better Call Saul) also co-stars as Kate McKenna, the technical director for APXGP, one of the few women to hold such a position, if not the only one. She basically designs the car that Sonny and Joshua drives. She's also the one that makes the modifications in order to ensure that the car drives as fast as it can and maintains the safety of the driver while on the race track. She also seems mostly there to be Sonny's love interest. To the film's credit, it has a plot point later that's about how the race-car's design could affect the team's qualification or ability to compete. Yet, it's a plot point that is quickly brushed over. We don't get that much diving into the specifics of the car's design, so there's no deeper understanding of car design or mechanics that makes the plot point impactful in any significant way.
We get more about car design and auto mechanics in James Mangold's Ford v Ferrari (2019). Christian Bale was the star of that film and one of the reasons that we get more about auto mechanics in that film, more than just a passing mention, is because Bale's character was himself an engineer. Pitt's character of Sonny isn't an engineer. Sonny has some knowledge in that regard, but he is clearly no expert. Sonny seems to know more about wind drag and tire temperature, which this film underscores a lot, especially during the racing sequences, but again, he's not an engineer. He's not really useful off the track. His best work is on the track.
The track therefore is where this film shines. For Top Gun: Maverick, Bruckheimer and the film studio, Paramount Pictures, were able to get access to real fighter jets and were able to put the actors in them with cameras in order to sell that the actors were doing their own stunts, which is a staple of any recent Tom Cruise action flick. The actors had to go through actual training so they could do piloting themselves. For this film, Bruckheimer and the film studio, Warner Bros. and Apple, basically did the same thing. Pitt and Idris were really put in race-cars with cameras and had them do some of the driving. Incorporation of real-life Formula One drivers was also done. One of whom was Lewis Hamilton who actually was offered a role in Top Gun: Maverick due to his friendship with Tom Cruise. He had scheduling conflicts, so he never appeared in that film, but his appearance here probably makes more sense.
The way that this film was shot and its use of IMAX cameras, and I did see this film in IMAX at the King of Prussia theater, was very immersive and very enthralling. I was never bored, even though I have no outside interest in motorsport. The scenes always pull you in. The reason it does is due to some clever writing, which is in a way about deconstructing how the races work and figuring out ways to subvert them or arguably cheat them. It's also quite funny in those moments.
Rated PG-13 for strong language and action.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 35 mins.
In theaters.