So many norms and institutions are broken in these too-often-divided United States. But as we celebrate our nation’s 249th birthday, let’s also salute one thing that still works: Brad Pitt.
Conventional Hollywood wisdom has it that movie stardom is a thing of the past. Of course there are still famous performers who are paid a ton of money to act onscreen, but their hold on audiences has waned. Previous generations of movie fans would turn out for the new Bette Davis picture or the new Clint Eastwood or the new Julia Roberts, the highly paid star serving as a reliable brand, a sexier version of Kellogg’s. Contemporary audiences are thought to be more readily drawn to franchises; it’s the role, the underlying intellectual property, that has currency now, not the actor. As Anthony Mackie, who plays The Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, put it somewhat morosely several years ago: “Anthony Mackie isn’t a movie star; The Falcon is a movie star.”
Or maybe neither is? Mr. Mackie and The Falcon sputtered to a disappointing (by Marvel standards) $200 million gross for their February release of “Captain America: Brave New World.” But the actor’s larger point has been borne out: The two movies with far and away the biggest domestic grosses so far this year, each at well over $400 million, are “A Minecraft Movie,” based on a video game, and “Lilo & Stitch,” a live-action remake of a 23-year-old Disney animated film. The latter picture had a cast largely of unknowns, unless you count voices of Zach Galifianakis and Courtney B. Vance, used for CGI characters. The former picture’s grosses weren’t hurt by casting Jack Black and Jason Momoa, but the primacy of the underlying I.P. is attested to by the very title: The producers didn’t need to call it “The Minecraft Movie.” The indefinite article — this could be any old Minecraft movie — was enough.
Anyway, I’m not here to dispute conventional wisdom. I’m here to celebrate the old-school triumph of “F1: The Movie,” the Brad Pitt racecar vehicle (sort of literally) that debuted last weekend with upwards of $145 million at the worldwide box office, the best opening of Mr. Pitt’s career.
True, there’s underlying I.P. here, too: F1 is Formula 1; the title is even trademarked. But this is a sport way down on most viewers’ lists. The sell here is Brad Pitt in a fast car. Vroom! Pedal to the metal! The carbon footprint is all-American!
I wouldn’t say the success is all on Mr. Pitt: The race sequences are genuinely thrilling. But the surprise of “F1” is that it’s a rare contemporary movie that knows how to use a movie star, and Mr. Pitt is one of the rare contemporary movie stars who knows how to be used. He’s content to bathe in the camera’s rapturous gaze, understanding just how much to give and never overdoing it, exuding confidence as both character and performer. He smiles but rarely grins, mostly keeping his lovely teeth to himself, always just a little bit wary. In opposition, he doesn’t glare, just tilts his head back skeptically. He’s not soft. Rather, he’s got the tensile stillness of Steve McQueen, and the movie even gives him some McQueen shtick: bouncing tennis balls against a wall the way the older actor did in “The Great Escape,” the epitome of flippant cool.
Not every director knows how to use Mr. Pitt. The actor’s “Bullet Train,” from three summers ago, did middling business. (Maybe because the costumer saddled him with a bucket hat?) The director of “F1” is Joseph Kosinski, who worked similarly iconic magic on Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick,” avoiding the jittery eagerness to please of Mr. Cruise’s last two “Mission: Impossible” movies (which have also generated less than expected returns). Some credit for the new movie’s success might also go to the fact that the chatter around it has largely ignored the abuse allegations that surfaced during Mr. Pitt’s divorce from Angelina Jolie, which he has denied.
The “F1” screenplay posits Mr. Pitt’s character, Sonny Hayes, as a “rough and tumble old school cowboy, doesn’t take orders, goes his own way,” and Mr. Kosinski films him like a Western hero. At a crucial third-act moment, he’s seen in a long shot walking down the pit lane to save the day as if he were the kind of lone gunslinger played by Gary Cooper or John Wayne, but with Robert Redford’s perfectly tailored denim and perfectly tousled hair. Do the math: That’s three generations of male movie stardom in one!
“Ever seen a miracle?” Sonny asks earlier in the picture, previewing his climactic triumph against all odds in the season’s last big race. Yes, the script is that hackneyed, but there can be pleasures when clichés are executed to perfection, especially when accompanied by a wink at their shamelessness. At least, I sensed a wink (or perhaps a more Pitt-appropriate shrug). Self-reflexiveness, too, is the provenance of a classic movie star. Watching “F1,” I didn’t for a second believe in Sonny Hayes, the character, but for two and a half hours I sure believed in Brad Pitt, the icon.
Bruce Handy is the author of “Hollywood High: A Totally Epic, Way Opinionated History of Teen Movies” and “Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Books as an Adult.” He has also written several picture books, most recently “There Was a Shadow,” illustrated by Lisk Feng.
Source photograph by Apple Original Films.
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