Sightlines · reception
How F1 was received
2025 · Joseph Kosinski · F1 on Sightlines
The arc
Opened summer 2025 as the movie that finally cracked Apple's theatrical curse — critics called it formulaic but irresistible, audiences made it a word-of-mouth juggernaut, and within months it settled into 'best big-screen experience of the year' status rather than any real reappraisal arc.
What’s debated
The forever-debate: is it a glorious old-school Bruckheimer blockbuster or just Top Gun: Maverick with the jets swapped for cars — a 155-minute luxury-brand commercial elevated by IMAX and Hans Zimmer?
Its footprint
The clunky official title 'F1: The Movie' became a running joke ('what's it about?'), the fictional APXGP team spawned real merch drops, and 'see it in IMAX or don't bother' became its unofficial tagline.
Where it stands
An instant entry in the dad-cinema/theatrical-maximalism canon — the 2025 'you had to see it loud' movie, logged endlessly on Letterboxd next to Rush and Ford v Ferrari.
Did you know? It was shot during actual Formula 1 Grand Prix weekends at real circuits, with Brad Pitt driving a modified Formula 2 car at speed, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton producing, and miniaturized camera rigs evolved from the ones Kosinski's team built for Top Gun: Maverick — and it became Apple's highest-grossing theatrical release.
Named by the director
- Grand Prix (1966) — Kosinski cited Frankenheimer's pioneering camera-on-car racing epic as the benchmark for putting audiences inside the cockpit.
- Le Mans (1971) — He named the Steve McQueen racing picture as a touchstone for the film's authentic, shot-at-real-races approach.