You can't fault the logic behind "F1", said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent. Strapping an ageing A-lister into a fighter jet for "Top Gun: Maverick" translated into megabucks at the box office, so why not hire the team behind that film, including director Joseph Kosinski, and get them to pull off another summer blockbuster, this time involving fast cars.
'Bone-dry'
'Puppyishly charming'
You can guess what follows, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. Sonny's "unorthodox" strategies pay dividends, and the team moves up "from the back of the grid at Silverstone to jockeying for pole position at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina". So the film is certainly formulaic, but Pitt is "puppyishly charming", even if he does not achieve Cruise levels of magnetism; Britain's Damson Idris provides good support as an "impulsive" rookie; and though "F1" suffers for being a "corporate tie-in", it's well made and offers plenty of thrills, even for those who are not F1 fans.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Yes, it is terrifically shot and edited, said Nicholas Barber on BBC Culture. But the story makes little sense – our hero is so relaxed, cocky and brilliant, you wonder why his career was ever on the skids; and the film's attitude to F1 is so "fawning", it has the feel of a glossy promotional video. Indeed, it is so intent on being positive about Formula 1 and its milieu, there isn't even a "proper antagonist".
-
Is Marjorie Taylor Greene undergoing a political realignment?TALKING POINTS The MAGA firebrand made a name for herself in Congress as one of the Donald Trump’s most unapologetic supporters. One year into Trump’s second term, a shift is afoot.
-
Film reviews: ‘Jay Kelly’ and ‘Sentimental Value’Feature A movie star looks back on his flawed life and another difficult dad seeks to make amends
-
6 homes on the Gulf CoastFeature Featuring an elegant townhouse in New Orleans’ French Quarter and contemporary coastal retreat in Texas
-
Film reviews: ‘Jay Kelly’ and ‘Sentimental Value’
Feature A movie star looks back on his flawed life and another difficult dad seeks to make amends
-
6 homes on the Gulf Coast
Feature Featuring an elegant townhouse in New Orleans’ French Quarter and contemporary coastal retreat in Texas
-
The vast horizons of the Puna de AtacamaThe Week Recommends The ‘dramatic and surreal’ landscape features volcanoes, fumaroles and salt flats
-
The John Lewis ad: touching, or just weird?Talking Point This year’s festive offering is full of 1990s nostalgia – but are hedonistic raves really the spirit of Christmas?
-
Train Dreams pulses with ‘awards season gravitas’The Week Recommends Felicity Jones and Joel Edgerton star in this meditative period piece about a working man in a vanished America
-
Middleland: Rory Stewart’s essay collection is a ‘triumph’The Week Recommends The Rest is Politics co-host compiles his fortnightly columns written during his time as an MP
-
‘Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America’ and ‘Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary’feature The culture divide in small-town Ohio and how the internet usurped dictionaries
-
6 homes with fall foliagefeature An autumnal orange Craftsman, a renovated Greek Revival church and an estate with an orchard
