This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
If you were to ask me to describe what genre Gran Turismo falls into, that question would be harder to answer than it may seem. Some have billed it as a video game adaptation, but really that’s not true. Instead, it feels like a sports drama/biopic that uses a real video game as a major plot point to tell its story. It’s about as unique a concept for a film as I have seen recently, which is a breath of fresh air in what can be a stale movie environment. Luckily, too, the concept isn’t the only thing about this movie that succeeds.
Gran Turismo tells the real-life story of Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a young man obsessed with racing and the racing sim/game Gran Turismo. Jann wins a contest to attend GT Academy, run by Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom), and trained by experienced racer and chief engineer Jack Salter (David Harbour). Through this academy, and hard work, Jann has the potential to race for real for Team Nissan at an actual professional racing event.
It must be acknowledged how well the filmmakers were able to tie in the game aspect that the film draws from heavily. It is probably the best usage of video games in a movie that I’ve seen. Which says a lot because most of the time you can tell that video game tie ins are written by people who have never touched a game console in their life.
What’s great about Gran Turismo is how well it is able to keep my heart racing and adrenaline pumping. I didn’t know what exactly I was expecting, but what I got blew away my expectations. The racing scenes were some of the best parts of the movie, and the way these scenes were shot, in addition to the phenomenal sounds of the film really kept my interest. Credit to cinematographer Jacques Jouffret and the entire sound department for knocking it out of the park.
It felt very similar to how well Top Gun: Maverick succeeded last year in making you feel everything about the vehicles these people were in control of. I cannot praise enough this aspect of the film, and to see actual racing happening was really cool. Especially when I learned that the real Jann Mardenborough did the stunts for his character in the film.
In addition to that, though, were some really solid performances from the lead cast. In particular, David Harbour was excellent as Team Nissan’s chief engineer and the one who trains Jann and co. how to race. Not once for a second did I not think he was an experienced racer who knew the ins and outs of every technical aspect of racing and race cars. It was truly a perfect performance from Harbour, who deserves recognition. Bloom and Madekwe deliver great performances here as well that solidified my belief in the film’s characters.
However, the blistering pace of Gran Turismo didn’t just apply to the racetrack here. Unfortunately, pacing issues tended to unevenly plague the film. At over 2 hours, there were plenty of fast paced moments, but sometimes the film just ran way too fast to get through it’s many plot points, and sometimes it slowed way down and spent too much time on subject matter that didn’t need it.
In addition, the story was totally predictable- being a biopic can have that effect- and the marketing team committed a cardinal sin in basically spoiling the entire plot of the film in the trailer, which really detracts from the unexpected nature of the film’s plot.
Yet, even with that I found myself continually wanting more, and the care taken in each and every unique race scene was just so great. I kept wanting to go back, it was that much fun.
Final Thoughts
Gran Turismo is just a whole lot of fun. The exhilarating racing scenes and great acting propel it forward into what could be one of the surprise hits of the year. Sure, the pacing was off in a few areas and the story is predictable, but I really didn’t care. What I came for was great racing and I got it. Car lovers will surely love this movie. As for everyone else? It’s absolutely worth your time, especially in theaters. Just don’t watch the trailer beforehand.
