F1: The Movie (Joseph Kosinski, 2025) & The Waterfront (Kevin Williamson, Netflix series, 2025)
I’ve got two new reviews for you today: First up it’s the action spectacle F1: The Movie, directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt, and secondly it’s the new Netflix series The Waterfront, created by Kevin Williamson (Dawson’s Creek, Scream, The Vampire Diaries).
F1: THE MOVIE (Joseph Kosinski, 2025)
F1: The Movie is an action packed spectacle, directed by Joseph Kosinski, who once and for all proves that the success of Top Gun: Maverick was no fluke.
In a summer traditionally filled with potential blockbusters, F1 feels like a really big entertainment, that both demands and deserves to been on the biggest screen available.
Brad Pitt plays one of the roles of his lifetime as one Sonny Hayes, a former Formula 1 hopeful, whose career was halted some thirty years by a near fatal crash in the run-up to the Spanish Grand Prix (footage of the crash that ended the F1 career of British driver Martin Donnelly, who is thanked in the credits).
In the following decades Hayes reinvented himself as a journeyman racer, not so much trying to revive his past glories, but more trying to get back the feeling that made racing so special to him in the beginning.
When the movie opens, Hayes is part of a team trying to win the 24 hours of Daytona. After the race he gets a visit from an old friend.
Ruben (Javier Bardem) used to be his team mate, and now manages a struggling F1 team, that has half a season left to win the one race that will stop it from being sold.
And guess who’s the one racer still dreaming of winning his own one race?
Written by Ehren Kruger, from a story by Kosinski and Kruger, F1 is a classic redemption movie, in which a very flawed hero - Sonny is a bit of an asshole - gets a shot at achieving his dream, while learning the always valuable lesson that it is ultimately ‘team work that makes the dream work.’
Hayes is surrounded by an equally colorful cast: his talented younger teammate Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) sees him as an old man, who has no business being in F1 anymore.
The team’s technical director Kate (Kerry Condon) wants to take him down a peg or two, even if she’s not exactly blind to his manly charms.
It’s good to see the always reliable Kim Bodnia (The Bridge) there as the team’s rugged race director. And then there is the somewhat over enthusiastic Banning (Tobias Menzies), who claims to be the only one of Ruben’s board members who actually wants to keep the team.
Even though the focus is on Hayes and his team, the actual F1-drivers are also there: we catch glimpses of Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and others, on the grid before the race or on the podium after, real life footage shot during the 2024 season.
Kosinski and co filmed extensively at the Silverstone Grand Prix, but also filmed at other races, ranging from Las Vegas to Abu Dhabi.
Indeed, the climax of the movie would seem to be inspired by the last race of the 2021 season, when Verstappen dramatically clinched his first world title in the Arabic state.
The race scenes are suitably impressive, the shots of the actors and their cars seamlessly blended together with the images of the real drivers. I won’t be surprised if F1 grabs the Oscar for best visual effects, it’s really that good.
If the movie has one serious flaw though, it’s that the race tactics that Sonny Hayes brings to the team seem to consist of the Plan C variety, with C standing for Combat and Chaos, with far too much reliance on race manipulation, which isn’t a particularly great look for the sport.
That Kate manages to dramatically improve the car during the season and make it more competitive also seems to be a bit of wishful thinking.
But, hey, it’s not a documentary, but a movie. And a really entertaining Hollywood movie at that.
I give it four stars!
Note: F1: The Movie is released next week.
THE WATERFRONT (Kevin Williamson, Netflix, 2025)
Ozark meets Dawson’s Creek in Kevin Williamson’s new eight part crime drama series The Waterfront, in which a rich fishing family in North Carolina falls out of grace and into drug running.
Kevin Williamson is, of course, famous for creating both legendary teen drama series Dawson’s Creek and ongoing horror comedy franchise Scream, so he can basically do whatever the hell he likes and still be the guy who did those classic things.
Having said that, I don’t think lightning strikes all that hard with and in The Waterfront, but it’s still a fun watch, if you switch off half your brain, that is.
The perennially great Holt McCallany (Mindhunter) plays pater familias Harlan Buckley, who has come back from the dead (or at least some serious heart problems) to take charge once again of his crumbling family empire, which was almost brought to ruin in his absence by his son Cane (Jake Weary).
It was Cane (and his mother) who thought running drugs was a good idea to keep the struggling fishing and restaurant business afloat in the small coastal town of Havenport in North Carolina the family have dominated for generations.
And why not? Crime is a very American way of life and after Harlan has kicked Cane’s ass for not doing a better job he only dives in deeper and decides being a drugs kingpin is the way to go. And before you can say ‘Shirley, you can’t be serious’ it’s off to the races and the twists and turns keep flying by.
Also in the mix are Harlan’s wife Belle (Maria Bello) and his former addict daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist), who would now like to take a stab at the (sometimes rather violent) family business.
There is also a host of supporting characters, who are either related to or involved with the Buckley family, or represent either criminal underbellies or law enforcement. And Topher Grace also shows up, so there is that.
Based on the first couple of episodes, I’d say there is a lot going on, both on and under the surface, and even though it’s pretty clear we’re mostly fishing in shallow waters, you might still want to stick around simply to find out what happens next.
I give it three stars.