F1: Asphalt is not sky

We saw a teaser for the Brad Pitt Formula 1 movie, F1, during the Super Bowl, but with the Australian Grand Prix upon us this weekend, the full trailer for F1 dropped and it is definitely Top Gun But Cars. 

F1 shares the same director, Joseph Kosinski, and the same cinematographer, Claudio Miranda, as Top Gun: Maverick, and they are obviously trying to recreate the feeling of being “in the cockpit” for F1. I’m less immediately thrilled by this trailer, though, than I was for the first trailer for Maverick, in which I specifically mentioned the cinematography. But then, the sky is prettier than asphalt. Also, there’s no nostalgia factor for F1 as there was with Maverick, though using Fleetwood Mac in the trailer is scoring points with me. 

 

What does work in the F1 trailer is Javier Bardem as a competitive but optimistic racing team owner—do we talk enough about how wildly charismatic Javier Bardem is?—and Damson Idris as the young up-and-comer resentful of having a washed-up driver shoved onto the team. Brad Pitt plays said washed-up driver. This is not twinkly Brad Pitt, though, it’s spiky Brad Pitt, but it’s not really clicking for me in this trailer. Maybe because when Pitt plays spiky, he does it on a lower frequency than you expect, so you need the full effect of the film to really enjoy his work. He can glide glibly through a trailer playing any manner of smarmy operative, but when he dials into something less charming, it takes more than two minutes to get on board (see also: his performance in The Big Short). 

F1 does not look terrible, the racing scenes might end up being thrilling as hell, but it’s a crowded summer. It opens on June 27, sandwiched between 28 Years Later and Jurassic World: Rebirth, never mind that Superman opens just two weeks later, too. There’s a lot of competition for dollars this summer, and nothing about the economy suggests people are going to be free with their dollars. Someone is going to lose this race, it’s just a question of who. Formula 1 is very popular around the world, and it’s been boosted in North America by Netflix’s Drive to Survive. Will that, plus Brad Pitt and the appeal of “from the makers of Top Gun: Maverick”, be enough to separate from a crowded field? 

Speaking of Formula 1, here is Lewis Hamilton, who will appear as himself in F1, in Australia today, still withholding Ferrari red in his fit. 

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