Brad Pitt gives all his laconic star power to the Big Summer Popcorn Blockbuster F1.
Every Super Star comes to a point in their career where they understand the power of their image and how a close up is a magnetically charged as any Special FX. Brad Pitt entering his late 50s has understood this for some time. F1 at its very gives him the biggest, best format to do that in, IMAX. For those moments all the sound and fury of the Joesph Kosinski racing epic mean nothing as we are zeroed in on one of our very last remaining Stars in a role that isn’t too dissimilar to his current career trajectory. In these moments Pitt let’s us soak in one of the remaining moments he will be this commanding.
Many have compared Pitt to Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and others. To compare the man to any of these is to do the man and his career a disservice. At every moment, similar to those titans, Pitt has tested and pressed against the image and boxes that Hollywood wanted him to be in. Even in F1 as Sunny Hayes – Pitt’s character isn’t the traditional gruff veteran. Hayes is a broken down, degenerate gambling, wanderer who for the entire film screws his chances at winning anything. There’s always a wry grin on Hayes as he crashes multi-million-dollar cars in the film. That in his own way he is finding a way to push the team towards victory is one of the sly narrative ticks that the screenplay manages.
The mere fact that Pitt character is never put into the traditional mentor or even an adversarial role but something in-between in the film in the film is another of F1’s strengths. Damson Idris as Noah Pearce the talented young F1 driver that’s about to lose his ride if he can’t get a win is fantastic. The way that Idris and Pitt constantly grind at each other is not rivals but older brother, younger brother energy that fuels the middle section of the film. The way that Idris’s Pearce refuses to be anything but who he is and even when he does find that Hayes may be onto something its always on his terms. It’s a smart bit of performance that will have many searching out Idris previous work (if one hasn’t seen his revelatory performance in the FX TV series Snowfall).
Continuing his streak of visually overpowering summer blockbusters is director Joseph Kosinski. The director’s continue evolutionary work feels endemic of the visual acumen of the late great Tony Scott not just because the directors both made Top Gun films for Jerry Bruckheimer. There is an inane understanding of big screen visuals that both men understand beyond just “pretty pictures”. There is an atmosphere and place they create – a mood and tone visually if you will.
F1 at its best is an assault on the senses. You can smell the jet fumes off the asphalt. The opening moments of the film as Hayes gets ready to take over a 24-hour relay in Daytona is the perfect example of Kosinski at his best. Working with cameraman Claudio Miranda and editor Stephen Mirrione they build and build the scene from the tranquility of ocean sounds until the thumping of John Bonham drums overtakes the soundtrack and Zepplin’s Whole Lotta Love slams us against our chairs and we’re off. As long as you strap in and forgive it some of bumpy passages, F1 delivers summer event entertainment made for the biggest screen possible starring one of our last true movie stars.
Brad Pitt gives all his laconic star power to the Big Summer Popcorn Blockbuster F1.
Every Super Star comes to a point in their career where they understand the power of their image and how a close up is a magnetically charged as any Special FX. Brad Pitt entering his late 50s has understood this for some time. F1 at its very gives him the biggest, best format to do that in, IMAX. For those moments all the sound and fury of the Joesph Kosinski racing epic mean nothing as we are zeroed in on one of our very last remaining Stars in a role that isn’t too dissimilar to his current career trajectory. In these moments Pitt let’s us soak in one of the remaining moments he will be this commanding.
Many have compared Pitt to Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and others. To compare the man to any of these is to do the man and his career a disservice. At every moment, similar to those titans, Pitt has tested and pressed against the image and boxes that Hollywood wanted him to be in. Even in F1 as Sunny Hayes – Pitt’s character isn’t the traditional gruff veteran. Hayes is a broken down, degenerate gambling, wanderer who for the entire film screws his chances at winning anything. There’s always a wry grin on Hayes as he crashes multi-million-dollar cars in the film. That in his own way he is finding a way to push the team towards victory is one of the sly narrative ticks that the screenplay manages.
The mere fact that Pitt character is never put into the traditional mentor or even an adversarial role but something in-between in the film in the film is another of F1’s strengths. Damson Idris as Noah Pearce the talented young F1 driver that’s about to lose his ride if he can’t get a win is fantastic. The way that Idris and Pitt constantly grind at each other is not rivals but older brother, younger brother energy that fuels the middle section of the film. The way that Idris’s Pearce refuses to be anything but who he is and even when he does find that Hayes may be onto something its always on his terms. It’s a smart bit of performance that will have many searching out Idris previous work (if one hasn’t seen his revelatory performance in the FX TV series Snowfall).
Continuing his streak of visually overpowering summer blockbusters is director Joseph Kosinski. The director’s continue evolutionary work feels endemic of the visual acumen of the late great Tony Scott not just because the directors both made Top Gun films for Jerry Bruckheimer. There is an inane understanding of big screen visuals that both men understand beyond just “pretty pictures”. There is an atmosphere and place they create – a mood and tone visually if you will.
F1 at its best is an assault on the senses. You can smell the jet fumes off the asphalt. The opening moments of the film as Hayes gets ready to take over a 24-hour relay in Daytona is the perfect example of Kosinski at his best. Working with cameraman Claudio Miranda and editor Stephen Mirrione they build and build the scene from the tranquility of ocean sounds until the thumping of John Bonham drums overtakes the soundtrack and Zepplin’s Whole Lotta Love slams us against our chairs and we’re off. As long as you strap in and forgive it some of bumpy passages, F1 delivers summer event entertainment made for the biggest screen possible starring one of our last true movie stars.
F1 is in theaters June 27th
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