A notable phenomenon has emerged within director Joseph Kosinski’s filmography. Yes, you’ll get an adrenaline rush. Yes, your senses will get pushed to their edges, and hopefully beyond. You’ll be wowed and impressed with the camera’s vantage point, which is his art. From Tron: Legacy through Top Gun: Maverick, Kosinski is a storyteller whose senses are firing on all cylinders, especially in his latest, F1® The Movie, now in theaters.

It isn’t so much the story of Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) where this phenomenon continues to morph. Sure, we want to see Pitt in the stoic, heroic role that he underplays with a gleeful twinkle in his eye so exceptionally well. And, yes, we want to see Sonny battle wits with the younger generation, in this case, that of Damson Idris’ Joshua Pearce as the up-and-coming rookie.

It’s Kosinski himself who is the phenomenon that continually morphs within the same four-walled storytelling tools he has successfully developed over the years. Sure, F1® The Movie is more akin to Days of Thunder than it is Grand Prix, but that’s his draw – the constant tug of a generational shift in technique and derring-do as the basis for a solid summertime drama.

It helps that Ruben Cervantes’ (Javier Bardem) neck is on the line – his team is in dead last in the Formula One season standings, and he needs the edge Sonny can give him, if Sonny can get out of his way F1® The Movie is inherently about the speed at which the sport operates, but it also speaks to the speed of the strategies as Sonny, Joshua, and Ruben learn, or re-learn about each other.

F1® The Movie paints Joshua as a prodigy, yet if the moving parts aren’t all aligned at just the right pitch, you may as well bury the oil used to keep these machines so well lubricated back in the sand where it sprang from. Sonny is a constant reminder, not only to his circle but to himself, that winning is as much about teaching as it is learning – something Pitt plays with distinction. Bardem’s performance is pitch-perfect, even if he’s along for the ride, he still brings distinction and gravitas to the role of Ruben.

Damson Idris is F1® The Movie’s firecracker. Though this is the first performance I’ve seen him in, Kosinski positions the actor very strongly against Pitt as strong rivals as Joshua gets underneath Sonny’s skin, bringing the third act alive.

Kerry Condon plays Kate McKenna, the team’s technical director, and the one character who can truly make Sonny look at himself deeper than the nomadic surface would have us believe. There’s a point in Kosinski’s and Ehren Kruger’s story (script by Top Gun: Maverick’s Kruger) where McKenna doesn’t know what to make of Sonny’s pearls of wisdom, but they learn the value of working together as a team to, pardon the pun, drive home a victory.

That’s the strength and resilience in F1® The Movie’s character and story – bringing solid tradition with innovative spark plugs together to form a formidable team.

The strength in Kosinski’s craftsmanship is in every bit of technology used to put the audience in the driver’s seat, from the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max’s used with IMAX lenses to hearing the roar of the cars in crisp Dolby Atmos, the visual perspective from cinematographer Claudio Miranda’s eye is appealing on a traditional theater screen, as is Hans Zimmer’s pulsing score, F1® The Movie’s engines just scream for the visual impact that IMAX can deliver.

There is a phenomenon mentioned about Joseph Kosinski, one that has been building throughout his filmography, that of his age. From this critic to the director, there is only a year difference in age. The phenomenon that F1® The Movie so successfully carries is the fact that Kosinski is a director who speaks across multiple generations, bringing time-tested techniques against cutting-edge storytelling, expertly framing characters in compelling environments, while the audience is along for the white-knuckled ride of their lives. F1® The Movie revs the limit and pushes beyond it.

F1® The Movie – see it in IMAX, see it with Dolby Atmos. Don’t fall asleep behind the wheel waiting for it to hit home video. See it with a crowd – it truly lives up to the experience of a summer blockbuster of yore.