Travis Leamons // Film Critic
Rated PG-13, 135 min.
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Cast: Archie Madekwe, David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Djimon Hounsou, Josha Stradowski, Thomas Kretschmann, and Geri Horner
2023 has become the year of “product cinema.” Whether it’s Nike trying to court Michael Jordan (AIR), the rise and fall of a mobile phone giant (BLACKBERRY), two plumbers getting sucked into a warp pipe (THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE), or a popular fashion doll having an existential crisis (BARBIE), anything we wear, use, or play with is fair game.
And speaking of games, now it’s time for Sony PlayStation to test its brand loyalty.
Last year, they muscled out a $400 million hit post-COVID with UNCHARTED, an action-adventure movie based on the best-selling video game series. Then, in early 2023, the gaming platform became the topic of water cooler discussion with its critically acclaimed and ratings hit THE LAST OF US, streaming on Max.
Its newest, GRAN TURISMO, is based on its “racing simulator.” To the layman, that means it’s a racing game. But the attention to detail with the cars and racing tracks is the title’s modus operandi, and explains why the game’s build and mechanics are more simulation than arcade excitement. Such detail may also explain why only eight sequels have been made over the past 25 years. But how exactly do you take a very successful racing simulator with 70 million copies sold worldwide and make it appeal to someone who has never picked up a controller or gripped a sim racing wheel?
Writers Jason Hall (AMERICAN SNIPER) and Zach Baylin (KING RICHARD) didn’t have to look far for inspiration. Because the racing simulator did the impossible, took novice drivers, and turned them into professional racers.
Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a 19-year-old from Cardiff, lives for the racing simulator. Memorizing every pixel and course layout from thousands of hours played, his love of GRAN TURISMO is strange to his father, Steve (Djimon Hounsou), a former soccer star now working his hands to the bone in providing for the family. He wants Jann to get serious about his future.
Several time zones away in Tokyo, Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom), a GM with Nissan Europe, wants to launch a contest with the developers and executives behind the game to find the best sim drivers from around the globe and test their virtual skills behind the wheel of real racers. The top racer would go on to compete in the global circuit.
Jack (David Harbour), an ex-racer (and Danny’s last-ditch effort to get a chief engineer), thinks the publicity stunt is a disaster before contest winners even set foot on the track. When Jann wins the UK region for a shot at racing stardom, he quickly learns that life is not a video game. There’s no reset button when losing control at more than 200 mph. Jann is the proverbial underdog. He is Rocky. He is Cole Trickle without the proper experience. His abilities are tested against stellar competition, his own self-doubts, and the enormity of what it takes to get behind the wheel again after a dangerous accident.
GRAN TURISMO follows the sports drama formula to the hilt and includes the familiar motifs and cliches we’ve seen before—the frustrated father who doesn’t understand his son’s gaming obsession; the curmudgeon engineer who’s against the whole enterprise but warms to mentoring young sim drivers to compete in real-world racing; and the underdog who is fed the idea people of his standing have no place in racing. But the movie broadens belief. The belief in making the impossible seem possible because, well, most of this actually happened. (For eight years, the GT Academy – Nissan’s virtual-to-reality competition – provided skilled players the opportunity to become professional drivers.)
The movie earns its racing stripes in Neill Blomkamp’s direction and by marrying the racing simulator with the race sequences. While his DISTRICT 9 debut was a gritty hybrid of found footage and fictional documentary, Blomkamp gives us his slickest film yet. The training sequences and montages are beautifully rendered. And he doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel when and where you cheer for Jann as his amateur status sheds and his need for speed grows.
Meanwhile, Danny is concerned with the brand and how Jann’s lack of personality could spell disaster for his grand vision. Jann gets a rich-kid rival in Nick (Josha Stradowski), a racing champ that is more Johnny Lawrence when he should be Niki Lauda. Sadly, I wished the narrative had leaned into a budding rivalry instead of sticking with the underdog story.
At 135 minutes, GRAN TURISMO is far too long for a narrative built on formula. A character and subplot could have been omitted entirely, and you wouldn’t lose much in terms of Jann’s story. This is a racer built from the likes of THE LAST STARFIGHTER, DAYS OF THUNDER, and TOP GUN (Jann is a bit of a maverick, driving by the seat of his pants at times), and finding one of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets. Despite the cliches and comparisons, the racing challenges are why you should watch. They may not hold a candle to Ron Howard’s frenetic RUSH. Still, sequences where speed is communicated with video-game indicators and drone-assisted flyover shots hit the gamer sweet spot, making the experience more entertaining.
Grade: B-
