Gran Turismo, based on the PlayStation racing simulation games and directed by District 9 helmer Neill Blomkamp, is many things: a sports movie, an underdog story, a somewhat accurate biodrama. It is also a film about dads.
We’ve all seen it before, whether in October Sky or High School Musical: a plucky young man wants to follow his dreams while his father disapproves. In Gran Turismo, Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) wants to leverage his virtual driving skills into a professional racing career. His ex-footballer dad (Djimon Hounsou) thinks, perhaps quite rationally, this is insane. But when a novel training program called GT Academy plucks Jann from his small Welsh hometown for the opportunity of a lifetime, our timid novice finds another father figure in the form of his prickly, reluctant mentor.
That is Jack Salter (David Harbour). The Nissan marketing exec who wants to turn gamers into racers––Danny Moore, portrayed with smarmy aplomb by Orlando Bloom––has Jack’s name in his contacts next to the letters “NFW,” as in “no fucking way.” But beggars, of course, can’t be choosers, and they’re both beggars. As a reviled former racer and renowned asshole, Jack can either take this gig or resign himself to life on a spoiled brat’s pit crew. Meanwhile, Moore is desperate to get his pet project off the ground, and he’s at the bottom of his rolodex.
Thus, Jann and Jack collide. It’s a contentious relationship at first. Jack welcomes Jann and his nine fellow top racers to GT Academy by telling them they’re all doomed to fail. He singles Jann out by asking if he’s too tall to fit in a racecar––a line that would be more convincing were it not spoken by David Harbour, a human sequoia. They’re foils for each other: Jann hypes himself up by listening to Kenny G. and Enya on his phone; Jack blasts Black Sabbath on an honest-to-god cassette player. Jann is shy; Jack is brash. But they connect where it counts, Jann finally earning Jack’s respect when he uncovers an issue with one of the training cars. They both love driving best when they’re going so fast that it feels like time slows down.
There are other things happening in this movie. Jann has a pretty boy rival at driving school and a female love interest waiting in the wings. His parents anxiously watch his races at home. Some truly impressive CGI turns Jann’s video game into an actual car and vice-versa. Bombastic sound mixing, whip-smart editing, and adroit cinematography make this a heart-pounding watch, especially when Jann’s races go off-track. Sony is wise to release it in IMAX and other immersive formats.
But without Jann and Jack’s relationship at its core, Gran Turismo would just be a well-produced commercial for a declining video game franchise. It’s based on the career of the real-life Jann Mardenborough, who co-produced the film and played his own stunt double in racing scenes, but loosely so. The film hits all the expected uplifting-sports-movie beats: competitors clash and bond, the underdogs beat the odds, our hero gets his girl. There are multiple platitudes about how anyone––even gamers, terribly disenfranchised as they are––can achieve their dreams. Harbour and Madekwe bring necessary oomph.
A relative newcomer to the big screen, Madekwe plays Jann with an intoxicating mix of self-possession and fragility. He’s easy to root for, even if you don’t really care about competitive gaming or cars. And of course Harbour, best known for playing Eleven’s adoptive father in Stranger Things, is particularly well-suited for the role of lovable grump. The film is aware of his appeal to the point of homoeroticism: his character gets introduced with the kind of sinuous, full-body pan that’s usually reserved for scantily clad women. Unlike Jann, Jack Salter is a completely fictional character, his crudeness occasionally bordering on silly, but Harbour lends him an air of vulnerability. There’s a bleeding heart under all that bluster.
If you were expecting nonstop, high-octane car action from Gran Turismo, good news: there’s plenty of that to go around. But there’s also (strangely, wonderfully) a sequence where Jann and Jack take a tearful lap around the track to the tune of “Wash” by Bon Iver.
Gran Turismo is now having select sneak previews nationwide and will open wide on Friday, August 25.