Brad Pitt’s F1 Movie Is Just “The Climb” for Boomer Dads

When the Crisis PR Press Tour is the Real Getaway Car

This is a free post for subscribers of Landline, a pop culture and history newsletter for people who care about the Titanic, and the Kate Winslet vehicle of the same name. Consider subscribing to the paid plan to get my weekly email of recommendations and links, a podcast episode, and more! You can also help me spread the word by sharing it with a friend who would love it.

Why did I spend my Fourth of July weekend in a theater watching F1?

There are some questions my newsletter can’t answer and this may be one of them. I do love a summer blockbuster and my wife and I wanted to do something that will be harder/impossible once our son arrives.

That said, we love an independent theater near us that has the aesthetic of a 90s/early 00s theater and the movies on offer were Jurassic Park part (hard to say at this point ?) or F1. I have written before in Sidebar about the strange appeal of the F1 reality show on Netflix which I can’t defend. It has taught me a lot about racing, a sport that is part science fair, part boxcar derby, part money laundering (I’m looking into this). I’m getting into it.

What I’m less into is the truly bizarre press tour Brad Pitt has been on to promote this film.

The TLDR of this film is this (spoilers ahead): A washed-up racer in his 50s gets a chance to race for an F1 team to help an former friend and rival. In the process, he mentors a younger driver, romances one of two women on the team, and makes everyone around him better. How? He hits other cars to help his teammate. In the end, he wins the big race and leaves the glory to his mentee and old friend. Because wait for it, he is a divorced gambling addict who has learned not to set down roots and not to get attached. He’s in it for the drive and not for his ego. This movie is essentially Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb,” but in a format a boomer dad can understand.

Some hot takes about the plot and Pitt’s presence in it:

• Rich that the film romanticizes a grown man running away from any attachments and being celebrated for his inability to maintain any form of relationship (platonic, romantic, etc) There is zero expectation that he grow, change, apologize, etc.

• Interesting that his big trick is clipping other cars aka framing his superpower as reckless destructive behavior

• Brad Pitt is 61. His character is mid- fifties. Why must we play these games? Was AARP the only sponsorship they didn’t get?

• The story is trying to be about old dogs/new tricks and intergenerational learning but we only see the youth learn. Brad Pitt is never treated as anything less than a star who is here to teach and inspire.

• Case in point, his romantic interest is a female aerodynamic expert. He mansplains car design to her, and the team's performance improves when she listens to his advice on designing the car. Isn’t she a literal expert in physics?

• Brad Pitt’s character benefits from 90s nostalgia as everyone romanticizes his return after a long time away from F1. Brad Pitt also wants to benefit from nostalgia except he never went away. He just has a period of time he would like us to forget about (aka his alleged assault on his then-wife and children on a private plane while intoxicated in 2016). How do we know he wants us to forget? Let’s go to the press tour!

The Crisis PR Tour:

• I knew this press tour would be a mess when Brad Pitt was featured in a breezy GQ cover story. They asked about his finalized divorce from Angelina Jolie. His answer: “"No, I don’t think it was that major of a thing," Pitt told the magazine. "Just something coming to fruition. Legally." It destroyed your family, your kids seem to not be in relationship with you, and it took literal years to resolve, but okay, Jan!

The crisis PR team he hired is really earning their money. Instead of any interview attempting to ask him something real, we’re treated to these headlines:

Hint: It’s Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, the stars of Thelma & Louise, his breakout role. It’s a shrewd choice to draw our attention to his proximity to a feminist film that also involves driving (and driving away, but to a different end and with a different meaning).

Tell me you’re desperate without telling me you’re desperate. Is this his version of jumping the couch? Or, the result of whatever calculus his team has done to make him human enough to seem likable, or at the very least, give us amnesia about the less likable things he’s done?. . . . Also, he shared this on the Kelce brothers’ podcast and OF COURSE they are the ideal audience for this. This gem of a tale is about being so “method” he ate a plate full of beans in four straight takes, resulting in well, you’ve read the headline. I am at a loss for how and why this got picked up to the degree it did by so many outlets. Do better, New York!

Speaking of desperate, inviting Tom Cruise to join you at your film premiere. Tom Cruise, the man who recently responded to the question of how he’d spend Father’s Day with something like “making movies!” (The crucial detail that kept Tom from starring with Brad was a concern he wouldn’t be allowed to drive enough). Now, I’m seeing stories of Brad suggesting Tom star with him in a sequel to F1.

This story comes from Dax Shephard’s podcast in which the two reveal they are part of the same men’s AA group in LA. The revealing part of this is that he admits he’s in AA but doesn’t admit what the moment was that sent him there. Dax doesn’t hold back from prying into his guest’s lives so his reticence to do so here is surprising.

We don’t know his life or his choices or what he may have attempted to make amends for the hurt he’s caused. What strikes me as false is the insistence on a redemption arch in the promotion of this film without any evidence of any actual remorse or redemption in Brad Pitt.

As Angelica Jade Bastién notes in a great recent piece in Variety, Brad Pitt is trying to fool you with his folksy and incredibly curated PR tour. The movie has done well (admittedly, I helped) but the real show is the attempt by a troubled and troubling man to distract us from the parts of his life that should concern us. In the end, his character in F1 simply drives away to start again somewhere else with a clean slate. I think it’s important to remember that women, queer folks, people of color and so many others aren’t afforded the same privilege.

Call Me! (or not!)

I’d love to hear from you! Drop your thoughts in the comments to share with the Landline community, or reply to this email to contact me. You can also find me on Instagram, or email me. I don’t have a dedicated phone line yet (just like in my youth), but maybe someday I’ll achieve Claudia status and get a Landline.

Thanks for reading!

This is a free post for subscribers of Landline. Consider subscribing to the paid plan to get my weekly email of recommendations and links, a podcast episode, and more! You can also help me spread the word by sharing it with a friend who would love it. Thank you for being a friend!