Blog

‘F1: The Movie’ follows Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), an ex-F1 driver who retired from the sport after a career-ending injury and now races in any series he can, in any car he can, chasing the need for speed. Hayes is brought back to Formula One at the request of Apex GP team owner, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), who used to be his teammate during his first stint in F1. Hayes is set to drive along with Apex GP’s rookie driver, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris).

From the get-go, it’s made very evident that Hayes is a one-man team and he only listens to one man: himself, and that he is not above putting himself or others in harm’s way if it gets him that win. We see this perception challenged over the course of the film as Hayes bonds with the Apex GP team, but despite his best efforts, the team struggles to stay afloat.

The Good…
The film does an incredible job of immersing you in the world of racing. During a scene in the third act of the film, Hayes describes the perfect moment of being in the car, one where he feels like he’s flying. You see this feeling play out during the last race of the season, and you truly understand exactly what he was talking about.

Claudio Miranda, the Director of Photography for this film, took the work he and Joseph Kosinski did during Top Gun: Maverick and built on it further. Miranda and Kosinski have worked together multiple times, and Miranda describes their relationship as one where they love to overcome new challenges. With Top Gun: Maverick, that was fitting six cameras into the cockpit of a fighter jet, and with F1, their enemy was weight. To tackle this problem, they fit a Sony FX3 sensor (a very accessible camera) into a camera body, and Panavision built custom remote heads that could be rigged onto the cars, which give us the iconic whip pans during the racing sequences of this film.

… the Bad…
Fans of the sport did receive more than enough warnings from the internet and early reviews to leave the technical brain behind and just enjoy the film for what it is: entertainment. Unfortunately, there were quite a few moments when the suspension of disbelief was thrown entirely out the window. Whether it be as tiny as the F1 race calendar being jumbled around or as large as the Apex GP team dealing with car damage fairly often, as a team on the verge of bankruptcy and liquidation, these errors start to pile on. These details are supposed to act like easter eggs and hype up any fans of the sport watching, and it’s actually a great way to up the stakes if you think about it from a narrative point of view.

Besides the little technical errors, it might not be the best representation of the current era of racing (the early 2010s to now). From a meta perspective, this film is neither fictional nor documentary in nature, with a fictional team made up of characters inserted into the real, current world of F1. Put in the context of racing films as a whole, Cars is an entirely fictional movie with fictional characters. Movies like Rush or Ford v Ferrari, other classics in the list of racing films, while exaggerating historical events for drama, are still built with a foundational truth to them. This film falls smack in the middle of those two. There’s no easy solution to this, of course. They couldn’t have created an entirely new grid filled with fictional characters and teams, and creating a narrative around a current driver would defeat the purpose of this film entirely.

… and the Ugly.
Unfortunately, getting racing wrong isn’t the worst thing this movie does, because its portrayal of women characters is lacking, to say the least. There are 4 female characters in the film – one in a minor role, two in side roles, and one in the main role.

Kate McKenna is the technical director of Apex GP, but has her power almost constantly undermined by Hayes, who asks her to change the entire aerodynamics model of the car. The other two female characters of note are Jodie, a mechanic who’s a part of the pit crew, and Bernadette, Joshua’s mother. Bernadette still feels like a fleshed-out character, one whose point is to illustrate the sacrifices that the families of the drivers have to make. Jodie, however, suffers a fate similar to Kate’s. When we first meet her, she’s seen as a mumbling mess in front of a hot-headed Pearce, and not long after, we see how her mistake costs the team a valuable pitstop.

Taking both Kate and Jodie’s characters together, it feels like this movie goes out of its way to undermine the role of women in the sport, a hot topic in the last couple of years as the sport has gained more popularity. But in 2025, it feels particularly hurtful because of all that women have accomplished in motorsports in the last year alone. From Laura Mueller becoming the first female race engineer for Esteban Ocon of the Moneygram Haas F1 team to F1 Academy gaining massive popularity in its first two seasons, women have come a long way to prove that they belong in motorsports.

Simone Ashley was also announced to be in the film in July 2024, but by the time the film actually premiered less than a year later, her role was cut down significantly. She was set to play Joshua Pearce’s love interest, but the storyline was entirely cut out. When asked about this, Kosinski stated that this is what often happens in movies and that they “shoot a lot more than they can actually use,” while still praising Ashley. This is, however, a larger trend in the industry that people of colour, especially women of colour, have their roles in production severely cut down by the time the final product makes it to our screens.

At the end of the day, F1 is a film built for blockbuster entertainment, and it does that very well. It comes at a lot of costs, especially to the history of the sport and how far it’s come. This isn’t even close to Pitt’s best performance in a sports film (see: Moneyball), and for a fair bit, it comes across as a distant legacy sequel to Tony Scott’s Days of Thunder (which came out on the same day in 1990 as the world premiere of this film). Should you still go and watch this film in theatres? Absolutely! And if you so wish, become a fan of the sport itself and immerse yourself in the very rich, often very funny, often quite scandalous world of Formula One.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) long-awaited Phase 6 kicks off this month with Fantastic Four: First  Steps. Like most of Marvel’s recent movies, Fantastic Four: First Steps also features a star-studded cast, which includes Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. The film is directed by Matt Shakman, a Marvel veteran, who previously directed Marvel’s WandaVision in 2021. Based on pre-ticket sales, the movie is predicted to earn massively at the box office. Despite this initial hype with pre-ticket sales numbers, previous Marvel projects point to a disconnect between their ambitious output and audience engagement, begging the question: Are we still as excited for big Marvel projects as we used to be?

Dwindling anticipation is not limited to recent projects, as it affected the entirety of Marvel’s last phase, Phase 5, which came to be the MCU’s least successful phase in terms of revenue generated. Superhero fatigue is real, there’s no denying it, but certain box office successes make a case for the genre being an indispensable part of cinema that generates substantial viewership without sacrificing the craft of filmmaking. Like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which was a remarkable attempt at exploring one of the MCU’s wittiest characters, Rocket, while successfully developing a dynamic group of characters and their stories.

A few key reasons explain this decline in enthusiasm, particularly the challenge of keeping up with so many interconnected stories, complicated further by the dual system of series and movies. While it was smart to diversify into shows to adapt to the new OTT environment, the decision also hampered the complex Marvel plotline experience because audiences cannot keep up anymore.  Central to MCU’s brand is the seamless connection of different plotlines over time, but ease of continuity in viewers’ minds is essential for this to work. However, now, there are too many shows to consume, with most getting left behind in the “continue watching” sections of our OTT accounts. The sheer anxiety of consuming the massive volume of content in the Cinematic Universe makes it difficult for audiences to appreciate it.

Shows allow characters to develop over multiple seasons, so when we transition back to a three-hour movie, the character journeys seem substantially less impactful. Remember Eternals? They were a group of ten superheroes that the MCU introduced back in 2021 with the expectation that audiences would root for them for approximately two and a half hours, only to leave them abandoned.

The problem with character-building is also evident in instances like Yelena Belova’s character, played by Florence Pugh, who is now leading the ‘New Avengers’ (Thunderbolts*). Unlike her sister, Black Widow, who audiences came to adore even before she had a standalone movie, Yelena’s character was tossed around in a series with Hawkeye and the Black Widow movie, and then suddenly handed the baton to be the next leader.

Established actors and big names now leading Marvel stories highlight a growing misstep for the franchise. The appeal of earlier characters like Captain America and Thor stemmed mainly from the fact that the actors portraying them were relatively fresh faces, stepping into their roles with almost a clean slate. These allowed the audiences to define the actors by their MCU roles.

Today, however, stars like Florence Pugh, known for her role in the Dune series; Kit Harington, famous as Jon Snow; David Harbour, a fan-favourite from Stranger Things; and Pedro Pascal, who has become a pop-culture icon and phenomenon, headline Marvel projects. Marvel even brought back Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, so that the new Deadpool movie could primarily be not a cinematic success, but a marketing one. Marvel, which was once known for launching actors with unforgettable roles, is now feeding off actors’ stardom to fill theatres. Whether this reliance will pay off remains unclear, as viewers continue to find it challenging to dissociate characters from the actors playing them.

Marvel’s plotlines have been subject to criticism, particularly for their generic protagonist-turned-villain theme, milked repeatedly with characters like Scarlet Witch in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Hulk in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Bucky Barnes in Captain  America: The Winter Soldier. In their defence, the infinite number of superhero movies released every year outside the MCU makes it increasingly difficult to stay original.

In terms of originality, looking beyond the MCU helps put things in perspective, as a lot can still be done to keep the genre fresh. For instance, Everything Everywhere All at  Once was a unique take on the previously explored metaphor of mothers as superheroes. The animated movie series The Incredibles remains highly entertaining, even though a similar concept was previously explored in Fantastic Four. Moreover, classics like The Dark  Knight trilogy continue to be loved because the movies explore real-world themes using their heroes and villains as funnels to make arguments, and not the other way around. Watching the three Spider-Men reunite was undeniably entertaining, but do we really need Robert Downey Jr. to return as a supervillain?

Inclusivity and diversity, as demonstrated by the success of Black Panther, have been positive additions to the Marvel universe. However, does representation need to be as overt as seen in Ms. Marvel? Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok executed comedy brilliantly, but should Deadpool & Wolverine have relied so heavily on humour that the movie felt more like a 2-hour-long stand-up routine? The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to grow, and its budgets, audiences, and VFX capabilities grow with it. They just need to be more selective and certain about the stories they choose to tell. How they tackle this will determine if the next phase sticks the landing.

Ozzy Osbourne, the heavy metal pioneer, whose chaotic stage presence, occult imagery, and the infamous bat-biting incident made him one of the most iconic figures in the history of rock music,  passed away on 22nd July 2025; he was 76.

Known as the “Prince of Darkness”, Osbourne spent decades crafting his horror persona. As the lead vocalist of Black Sabbath and later a solo artist, he helped define the visual and thematic vocabulary of heavy metal. While critics questioned his choices and religious groups denounced and associated him with Satanism, Osbourne embraced his infamy with self-aware flair. His legacy lies not only in the music he made but in the boundary-pushing dark persona, which altered rock music forever.

Born in a Graveyard, Adopted by Sin

Born John Michael Osbourne on 3 December 1948, in Birmingham, England, Osbourne did not have an easy and lavish life. He grew up in a modest household alongside five siblings. Osbourne struggled with dyslexia in school, forcing him to drop out at 15. After dropping out, he had to cycle through a series of menial and low-paying jobs; he even served jail time for petty theft. Inspired by the Beatles, his passion for music set him on a radically different path.

In 1968, he co-founded Black Sabbath. The 60s, known for its peace and love-optimism, was about to change thanks to its dark riffs and apocalyptic lyrics. Black Sabbath released their debut album, “Black Sabbath,” in 1970; the first song opened with church bells, and the eerie music set the tone. Osbourne’s ghostly, almost chant-like vocals became a defining feature of the band’s sound.

Rock musicians like to play with danger, and Osbourne made it a central theme. Onstage, he seemed possessed, his eyes rolling back as he sang about ghoulish topics like war and mental torment. Offstage, Osbourne had a mysterious persona; he wore black capes and crosses, and spoke cryptically about the dark subjects he sang about.

The dark image became legendary in 1982 during a solo concert in Des Moines, Iowa. A fan threw a bat on the stage- Osbourne assumed it was a rubber bat, and he bit into it only to discover it was alive. This moment sparked outrage, horror, and fascination across the world.

Osbourne was removed from Black Sabbath in 1979 due to substance abuse issues, which paved the way for his solo career. With help from his manager and second wife, Sharon Osbourne, he released “Blizzard of Ozz”. He built a solo legacy rooted in the same horror and theatrical darkness that had made him famous initially, but with a clear focus and independence. Alongside his music, Osbourne’s off-stage behaviour became the stuff of tabloid fascination. He was infamous for outrageous acts like urinating on a historic monument in the Alamo while wearing his wife’s dress and snorting a line of ants during a tour. After facing accusations of him being a satanist and the Antichrist from right-wing Christian groups, he replied, “I’m not the Antichrist, I’m just a rock and roll singer with a dramatic flair”.

His life took a turn in 2002 with The Osbournes, an MTV reality show that exposed a new side of the rock legend. Despite the previous perception of him being a terrifying icon in the 70s and 80s, Osbourne appeared as a fumbling, caring father navigating his daily life with confusion and gentleness. The show became a cultural phenomenon, and millions of viewers tuned in to watch it every week.

Despite recurring health struggles, including Parkinson’s diagnosis, surgeries, and a well-documented history of addiction to alcohol and drugs, Osbourne continued to record and perform well into his seventies. He collaborated with artists like Post Malone and Elton John to make new music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Black Sabbath in 2006 and received numerous awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Even though he had differences with Black Sabbath, he reunited with them multiple times. Just a few days before his demise, he performed a final show with them on 5 July 2025.

Fans around the world mourned the death of Prince of Darkness, and said that his last performance was the “perfect farewell for their Prince.” “There will never be another Ozzy,” said guitarist Tony Iommi, his longtime bandmate in Black Sabbath, “he was the voice of metal and the heart of the band.” Elton John wrote, “Ozzy made madness into magic. We’ve lost a legend”.

Osbourne is survived by his wife, Sharon, and his children, Aimee, Kelly, and Jack.