Before Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) made a name for himself in Formula One racing, he was a gamer who logged countless hours on the racing simulator Gran Turismo.  He made the jump from gaming chair to the driver’s seat as part of a hair-brained marketing campaign for Nissan spearheaded by Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) who formed the GT Academy to turn sim racers into licensed racers.  Under the tutelage of Jack Salter (David Harbour), Jann’s rise to stardom is an incredible underdog story that captured the attention of the entire sport.  For every meteoric high, however, there were also some cataclysmic lows that threatened to destroy not only the brand image Nissan was after, but also put into jeopardy Jann’s pursuit of his dream. 

Neill Blomkamp directs the sports drama, Gran Turismo, from a script penned by Jason Hall and Zach Baylin.  Without the opportunity to have the cast promote the film, its wide release was delayed by Sony/Columbia opting instead for an extensive weeks-long preview cycle to try and garner word-of-mouth and grassroots support for the title that, in theory, should have a built-in audience of fans of the game.  While this approach did allow the title to claim the top spot on its opening weekend – thanks to some accounting magic according to rival studio Warner Brothers – it is hard to say if this preview strategy will have paid off in the end. While it gave itself some breathing room away from the massive success of “Barbenhiemer,” its new date resulted in a Sunday take which was largely comprised of $4 tickets for National Cinema Day.  Running 134 minutes, the video game/biopic/sports film finds itself catering to a handful of niche audience groups, and in an effort to cater to their individual needs, Gran Turismo sometimes finds itself running out of gas. 

The film rides on Madekwe’s shoulders, and while the actor has a roughly written role in the opening act, once he gets behind the wheel at the GT Academy, both actor and script find their stride.  The problem with the opening of the film is that it is trying so hard to get audiences to believe that a sim racer can make the jump into real racing, and it does so by saddling Madekwe with lines about how he knows what it is like to be behind the wheel and how he has studied these tracks just as much as any of the licensed racers out there.  It all rings hollow as we do not ever get to see him back any of this up for quite some time and Madekwe brings a grating, pleading element to the performance almost as if he is pleading with the script to just let him show us something instead of merely talking about it. When he is finally on the move, it is by pedaling around town on his bike, which makes his claim of knowledge about the sport even less believable, but eventually, the film finally does allow him behind the wheel of a car in a, by set piece standard, a pretty low-frills car chase, but looking at it within context Jann is still just a kid speeding away from the cops through town.  Regardless, when the script is more focused on showing us the story instead of pontificating at how unbelievable and real the story is, it is far more successful overall. 

Madekwe shines as the action hero of the film able to bring some charm and charisma into the film and works as a pliable entry point to help bridge the gap between the racing world and whatever level of knowledge and understanding the film’s audience brings to the table.  It does not find itself getting too in the weeds about the technical side of racing, almost to its detriment as it would have helped add some variety to the training montages more so than just the jolt of the car when it first starts moving.  While the real Jann Mardenborough provides the stunt driving for Madekwe, off the track is when we really begin to bond with the character and believe his motivations.  There are still some instances where he talks about the nuances of the car or the track and it still does not quite come off as earned, but Gran Turismo really brings the drama aspect of a sports drama into focus and in some unique ways not often seen in underdog stories. 

One of the more emotional sequences occurs rather late in the film during the Nürburgring Nordschleife race in which Jann’s car goes airborne at the Flugplatz corner, landing off course, breaking through a barrier, and ultimately resulting in the death of a spectator.  While the fatal crash is true to Mardenborough’s story, the film has received some rightful criticism for changing the timeline and using this crash as a pivotal moment of resolve for that character to continue on with racing or pack it up and go back home.  Narratively, it makes sense to change this timeline around a little bit, and it is not uncommon for biopics to play with continuity to increase the drama of the story, but it does feel like it trivializes the fatality and makes the resolution – to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – feel even that much more insane.  While this seems to have ultimately been Moore’s goal for the GT Academy, it becomes more of a redemption tour than a crowning achievement in this altered timeline.  Madekwe really excels in these quieter moments, though, and in that sense, the gravity of the situation is still handled with the care and respect it deserves. 

The film is not all quiet, though, because at its core it is about racing, and Blomkamp in conjunction with his cinematographer Jacques Jouffret and the editing team of Austyn Daines, Eric Freidenberg, and Colby Parker Jr. are able to inject great energy and inertia into those sequences. There are clear elements of the game’s design worked into the identity of Gran Turisomo’s racing sequences, but it is not overdone, and instead, it feels more of an accent to the film’s design instead of the centerpiece. Audiences are never left longing for a controller in their hands and instead can wrap themselves up in the drama and the action of the film. Further, to help prevent it from being just an absolute frenzy – or, conversely, a boring static close-up of the helmeted Jann – the camera often cuts to Jack in the control room, and as the narrative begins to develop, Harbor’s role becomes less of a drill sergeant and more of an empowering mentor figure. He and Madekwe foster great chemistry together over time and together they really help keep audiences invested in the emotional arcs of the film. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Bloom who, to be fair, has far less screen time, but his antics seem clownish over time and the script seems unsure of how to utilize this character who is it clear belongs in the board room and not the race track. 

Gran Turismo is a film that is surprising in how wide a story it looks to tell. There is a clear antagonist in Nicholas Capa (Josha Stradowski), a showy racer who has bought his place in the league, and a secondary source of tension in Jann’s father (Djimon Hounsou) who does not understand his son’s dream, but beyond that the film is most effective in showing how racing is a battle against one’s own wits. It still falls victim to all of the traps and pitfalls of underdog sports stories, so the stakes are incredibly low overall, and even though the filmmaking boosts up the energy in the individual scenes, we never are in any doubt of Jann’s eventual success. Gran Turismo may not have the same level of prestige around it as Grand Prix (1966), Rush (2013), or even Ford v. Ferrari (2109) did – a possible example of parallel prejudice given the film’s video game roots – it still manages to be an engaging and exciting film overall with a big, bold heart pumping behind every scene.