I am not much of a fan of Formula 1. But I have been interested in the career of Brad Pitt since his breakthrough appearance in “Thelma and Louise,” which coincidentally ends with a dramatic car crash.
Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a character who had a devastating car crash 30 years ago. One of his pals from way back is desperately in need of an F1 driver, as his team is about to lose its spot in F1. He pulls the Pitt character out of the hat and matches him with a young, cocky 2nd driver, who sees Pitt as a liability. The rivalry between Pitt and the 2nd driver propels the film forward. The ending is a bit of a letdown. The strongest suit of the film is its realistic shots of racing. You feel at times as if you are racing yourself.

For me, perhaps the most interesting part of the movie was that it resurrected memories of a schoolmate when I was around 11 years old. He was the biggest Formula 1 fan you can imagine. He even invented a board game where you had to pick a car and roll dice to advance positions on the race course based on how many points your dice showed. Out of nowhere, I saw him again after decades a few weeks after I had watched the film. The circle of life.