Gran Turismo (2023)

Score: C- (7/10)

Despite including beautifully cinematic sequences and a tough and rugged biographical angle surrounding Jann Mardenborough’s journey from Gran Turismo to professional endurance racing, Gran Turismo ultimately fails at the very thing it set out to do: have it based on a true story.

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Jann Mardenborough is a shining example of what’s possible with racing simulators. Because of an opportunity from Nissan’s GT Academy, Jann went from a dropout college student to a professional racing driver. It’s a beautiful real-life underdog story, but it didn’t come without its gripes. He made mistakes and learned the ropes surrounding driving around other professional drivers. He also dealt with an accident at the most dangerous racing course in the world (but more on that later). He’s the perfect guy for racing newcomers to learn about and for Gran Turismo to surround itself with, a genius marketing stunt by Sony to advertise their successes and Gran Turismo. However, there’s more to making a film than throwing money at studios and filmmakers.

Case in point: Sony hired Neil Blomkamp to direct Gran Turismo. Seen by many as an odd move, especially considering his previously sci-fi-centered works, he saw it as an opportunity to reenergize his prowess after low appraisal for 2015’s Chappie and a nearly non-existent cultural presence with 2021’s Demonic. Luckily for many long-time fans, Blomkamp puts the opportunity to good use, creating several beautifully cinematic sequences, sometimes even getting it near-exact to original racing footage. Visually, Blomkamp knows what he’s doing, and the film reaches phenomenal heights, metaphorically and literally, as a result.

However, one concern appeared early on in the film’s marketing push: it bases itself on a true story. The primary issue was the general audience’s unknown knowledge of this, made clear by the initial announcement not providing any details on its narrative. However, another lie surrounding the movie’s “love story.” A common mistake by many racing movies is to drown out the racing with other dramatic elements, with a love story often being the top choice. While Gran Turismo includes a love story, it does little to change or advance the plot, making it irrelevant and unnecessary in the movie’s narrative and a waste of runtime.

Contrary to the love story, there is one idea to get across: Gran Turismo is a great movie but a mediocre racing movie. The film includes plenty of great scenes filled with tension and drama, but it often fabricates them to lie far from the “true story” it's marketing itself as. Case in point: Jann Mardenborough’s infamous crash at the Nurburgring killed a spectator, leaving Jann with minor injuries. Yes, Jann likely grieved the loss of the spectator merely because he indirectly killed an innocent person. However, the movie goes out of its way to make the event, which occurred in 2015, take place before his podium in the LMP2 class at Le Mans in 2014. For a movie claiming it bases itself on a true story, it’s hard to agree when entire events change their chronological order.

Additionally, the film doesn’t provide details surrounding certain events. GT Academy had regional qualifiers done outside of Gran Turismo before picking the winners of each qualifier and bringing them to the international event. Nurburgring is the most dangerous circuit in the world, with multiple drivers losing their lives and getting injured at the racing circuit, which the movie somehow decided not to share with the audience despite adding a hefty amount of tension to the narrative if it was included. Fortunately, once past the creative liberties the film took to make the true story more exciting, those sequences are done spectacularly, still making the movie a worthwhile watch in theaters.

As a long-time motorsport fan, I did not like this movie. It often feels like the movie’s making things up as it goes along to make it more entertaining when the true story already is. Racing is (apparently) challenging for filmmakers to depict correctly. However, the issue with Gran Turismo is it could have been a fantastic biopic if it weren’t for stereotypical story elements getting in the way. Racing movies do not need them to be exciting, which Ford vs. Ferrari, a movie released four years ago, did beautifully. However, as a film fan, the movie is visually breathtaking, with Neil Blomkamp’s attempt at using drone cameras working off beautifully. The acting and directing in Gran Turismo are fantastic, but the writing’s inconsistent narrative and fairly blatant advertising throw away much of what the film had going for it.