NOTE: As of me writing this, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are currently on strike, demanding fair wages, better working conditions, protection from AI, among many other important issues that face writers, actors, and even other sections of the entertainment industry. I am in full support of the strike, and I encourage you to read about it, spread word, and if possible, consider donating to the Entertainment Community Fund, which helps financially struggling artists and workers in the film and television industry. Thank you.
Gran Turismo is not really an adaptation of the famous PlayStation game series. It is actually inspired by the kind of ridiculous true story of Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a young Gran Turismo player who has aspirations to become a professional racer, much to the dismay of his father, Steve (Djimon Hounsou). However, his ambition is no longer a pipe dream, as he wins a gaming competition that grants him a slot at the Nissan-sponsored GT Academy, which will have Jack (David Harbour) train Jann, among other top tier gamers, in the art and skills that go behind real race car driving.
I’m surprised this is a story I haven’t heard of before because the notion of having gamers compete with each other in order to qualify for the potential of being actual racers is a wild conceit. Though, given how his pitch went in the film, it doesn’t seem to have been much of a challenge to one of Nissan’s top marketing executives, Danny (Orlando Bloom), who goes to set the program up, and hire Jack. And while it wasn’t hard to get the program going, it is more of a challenge to be taken seriously, especially when Jann goes on to become the gamer chosen to be signed with Nissan to represent them on the tracks.
Tackling a script by Jason Hall and Zach Baylin, the film is directed by Neill Blomkamp, a surprising deviation from his usual R-rated sci-fi work. One would think this is simply a work-for-hire gig after a number of financial – and critical – disappointments. Though, I will go to bat for Elysium and Chappie for being pretty entertaining fare despite their faults. However, one of the things that surprised me the most about Gran Turismo is just how much Blomkamp came to play, in a manner of speaking. This is by no means a phoned in directing gig.
Blomkamp’s bright and slick aesthetic sensibilities and fascination with technology work well in a lot of the environments here from the looks at the video game developers scanning cars, to the state of the art facilities where Jann trains. Though it may not be an action film, it is a very thrilling film. The racing sequences are especially exciting and exhilarating to watch. With the booming sound design to the stellar work from cinematographer, Jacques Jouffret, which captures these races with grand wide shots utilizing a combination of helicopters and drones, and extreme close-ups with the camera locked onto the vehicles or within Jann’s helmet. It’s really effective stuff.
At its core, it’s very much a traditional underdog sports movie. It has all the beats you would expect given the dynamic between Jann and his dad, and between Jann and Jack, who only reluctantly took the gig and started off the training with the gamers openly saying he did not believe in them, and is dead set on proving himself right. You know where it’s all going. However, it’s all in the execution. The film is incredibly sincere, and the emotional beats are delivered with earnest performances that keep you engaged with the characters. I did not anticipate crying in a Gran Turismo movie, but…that is what happened during a reunion scene in the last act.
That said, sometimes the formula is followed a bit too close. Some of the more antagonistic racers that Jann has to deal with are a bit over-the-top for the otherwise realistic tone the film is trying to set. Sometimes the corporate brand management side of all this rears its ugly head one too many times, with all the Sony product placement, and the way one can’t help but feel that if this were a fictional story with fictional companies, Danny would probably come across even more slimy than the few bits where his impulses put Jann’s abilities into question.
But the one major questionable bit in the film is a crash. A crash that actually happened involving Jann, that unfortunately killed a spectator. It happened in 2015, a couple years after the events of the film. And in the film, it is essentially used as the Act Two Low Point, which puts Jann at the bottom, before he is motivated to rise back up to do what he needs to do for the final act. It is…distasteful, to say the least, to use a real person’s tragedy as a piece to push a film’s story along. Apparently, the real Jann insisted the moment be included as a way of being honest about his experience, but the way the writers went about it does not sit right with me.
Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by Gran Turismo. I don’t recall who coined this phrase, but the film is what I’d like to call a “4 Star-3 Star” movie. It’s not the most ambitious, most complex, or thematically/emotionally deep, it is formulaic and simple, but everyone in the cast and crew were seemingly on the same page as to the kind of movie they want to deliver, and they were pretty much hitting all the right targets in that regard. Madekwe is an endearing and believable lead, his dynamic with Harbour is charming, the father-son stuff is really moving, the score from Lorne Balfe and Andrew Kawczynski is propulsive, and it has a solid collection of songs for the soundtrack as well. There isn’t much to really harp on, it’s a really solid underdog movie with races that had me on the edge of my seat, with what seems like a great emphasis placed on shooting real cars, with the real Jann serving as Madekwe’s double, and there is some really fun visual flair that makes use of the video game’s visual language to capture what our lead is thinking as he drives. A real treat to experience on a big, loud screen. I haven’t played these games, I don’t know much about them, but for a little over two hours, I found myself pretty invested, and I consider that a win.
Gran Turismo is now out in theaters.