Gran Turismo is based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a young man that made the journey from video game player to professional race car driver. The story is perfect for a biopic. Or in this case, a racing movie.

In the early 2000’s, the motorsport division of Nissan creates the GT (Gran Turismo) Academy to recruit gamers that are exceptional at racing simulator Gran Turismo, and turn them into real racers. Lead by marketing executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom), the GT Academy recruits Jack Slater (David Harbour) to put the drivers through grueling training and prepare them to be racers. The film follows Jann (Archie Madekwe) through this journey as he shows attempts to become a driver, learns life lessons, and tries to earn his father’s approval.

Like we see often in sports biopics and documentaries, Director Neil Blomkamp trades an in-depth look into Jann’s relationships and character development for numerous entertaining racing scenes. The latter is more crowd pleasing but stops the film from being a level or two more interesting. The biggest casualty comes in the films third act when the audience is supposed to care about Jann’s love interest or his relationship with his father. Those relationships aren’t explored enough to have the emotional impact the film reaches for in its final moments.

Even with the film having barriers to keep audiences from being deeply invested, it’s still very entertaining, heartwarming, and packed with some fantastic racing footage. The story leans heavy into being a crowd-pleasing film and never takes its foot off the gas.

Madekwe gives a solid performance as a fish out of water trying his hand at racing. The script does a good job of showcasing Mardenborough having a lot to learn but still being confident in his abilities. Once at the academy, the film unloads every underdog sports movie trope. There’s even a rich evil racing team that they’re up against – it’s a trope straight out of an 80’s movie. As predictable as the tropes can be, they keep audiences engaged in seeing their hero win and the bad guys lose. This formula works very well in Gran Turismo.

The highlight of the film is David Harbour as Jack Slater. Harbour is fantastic as the very skeptical and often inspirational trainer. He’s part ally, part trainer, and also Mardenborough’s toughest critic. While the other actors are in a fun sports drama, Harbour delivers his lines like he’s acting in a very serious drama about sport racing. This approach works for his character and highlights the very serious risks these drivers are taking.

The most beautiful part of the film is the racing scenes. Director Neill Blomkamp uses all the tools in his director’s kit to put together some incredible racing sequences. There’s no doubt the racing scenes will be the highlight for most audiences. The screenplay by Jason Hall and Zach Baylin does a great job translating racing and the verbiage they use to audiences so they understand what’s happening on screen.

Gran Turismo is a fun film that’s light on the seriousness and heavy on the fun. If you want serious, Michael Mann’s Ferrari along with the Brad Pitt and Damson Idris Formula One movie, will be in theaters soon enough. If you want a fun racing movie and an underdog sports movie, Gran Turismo is exactly what you need.

Grade: B