Top Gun: Maverick’s Director Joseph Kosinski brings the high-speed action of the international supersport of Formula 1 onto the big screen with a mix of camerawork and visual storytelling that not many other directors can do with such finesse.
F1‘s director certainly borrows, or—well—basically rips off, a dozen or so story beats from his last motion picture to make a story that doesn’t necessarily mirror, but certainly rhymes with, Maverick.
Despite that gripe, I raced home in my Jeep Grand Cherokee feeling like Sonny Hayes in Abu Dhabi to get this review in front of your eyeballs to tell you one thing:
Get in the driver’s seat and go. Go see this movie.
Just like with Top Gun: Maverick, Kosinski masterfully puts together an ensemble of likable cast members and an easy-to-follow story from beat to beat to give audiences of nearly all ages a reason to see it.
He played it safe—and that could be a knock on a sports action film of this magnitude—but this movie was never about who was going to end up with who in the end, nor was it about the characters whatsoever (regardless of how likable they are); it was about the act of seeing this sport in its rawest, most beautiful form take shape on-screen unlike any other sports racing movie in the 21st century (sorry, Talladega Nights… you’re still the funniest take on the genre this century!).
I genuinely feel bad for folks who wait for this movie to go to streaming on Apple’s streaming platform, because this movie, just like Maverick, was made to be seen in theaters.
This article appears in Jul 4-31, 2025.
