Ford v Ferrari

Racing movies have been a bit of a dying genre in this past decade due to the challenge of adapting a used formula and making it standout somehow. Part of that relies on the predictable usage of the narrative pattern with establishing the important figures as well as their background motivation to bring a work together in their respective roles to overcome the competition in the sport while dealing with obstacles that either have happened in real life in some manner or exaggerated aspects to treat the audience to some crowd pleasing entertainment. As mentioned before in my Fighting with My Family review, I'm not a sports fan but someone who can enjoy those types of movies when there is something enticing or recognizable to my liking. This brings us to Ford V Ferrari, a new biographical from James Mangold (director of Logan and 3:10 to Yuma) starring Christian Bale and Matt Damon. The marketing campaign intrigued me with both the cast and some hints about the racing filmmaking. I went in blind knowing nothing about the historical subject matter being tackled and left the auditorium satisfied that I checked it out.

What's it about? The story follows Henry Ford II hiring an automotive visionary and a British driver overseeing a group of designers and engineers to create a new racing car to compete against the Ferrari team in the 1966 24 hour Le Mans race in France. With a premise like that, most would expect the ratio of racing sequences and non-racing to be balanced in terms of runtime. While that's not the case here, it manages to achieve a quality for the scenes involved in both of those areas to feel like the screen time they had set for them was used properly. It's very much an old school kind of crowdpleaser, which is a compliment to its entertainment value in this story's main struggle between the creative minds and the corporate business limiters. From what's shown here (and from what I learned later on), it remains mostly spot to the events they are portraying with some small adjustments to its narrative (some bits are rather obvious with that). As for the big race sequences in the third act, they are worth the wait and well made in making the event a good adrenaline rush.

How are the actors? In regards to the main actors to focus on, it relies on the strength in these roles given to Christian Bale and Matt Damon as Ken Miles and Carol Shelby, respectively. Bale gives a great balanced performance that blends energetic glee about his profession with the dramatic seriousness to struggling nature of his life. Damon is also great at being the opposite side of the coin where he's endeavoring for going through the best option needed to design the race car while having to deal with rules from the executives who hired him. The chemistry between the cast is what helps sells the watchability factor of this movie. Honorable mentions go to Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balfe, Tracy Letts, and Josh Lucas for their standout supporting roles where they managed to shine in.

Overall Consensus: Ford v Ferrari succeeds as a solid crowdpleaser sports drama abundant with great performances, excellent race sequences, and an endearing historical events. ⭑⭑⭑⭑🎟 Runtime: 2 hour 30 minutes PG-13

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors. You enjoy sports dramas with awesome races and/or racing in general. You don't mind cliched crowd pleasing features.

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors. You dislike sports dramas in general. You are bored with cliched crowd pleasing features.