The true story of Jann Mardenborough, the British gamer who managed to transfer his skills into a real-life racing career, is given the big-screen treatment, courtesy of the once great ‘District 9’ director Neill Blomkamp.
Gran Turismother of God, what soulless and formulaic extended commercial for PlayStation and Nissan did I just watch?
“This whole thing is a marketing extravaganza!” yells auto executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) at racing coach Jack Salter (David Harbour). There, in a nutshell, is Gran Turismo. It’s not the worst film you’ll see all year by a country mile, but it fails to capture what made the game so popular in the first place, and despite some semi-decent race sequences and nifty editing, the whole thing gives the impression of desperately yearning for self-awareness and only ends up in one gear: creatively barren product placement.
It even has the unabashed gall to give a cameo to Geri Halliwell Horner aka: Ginger Spice, whose line delivery made me cringe so hard I still fear I may have ruptured my spleen.
I won’t waste any more of your time on this film, which may appeal to fans of the game at a push but only served as a sobering call for me to watch less films and read more books for the rest of the summer.
If, unlike me, you’re not wrestling with a cinematic crisis of faith (kickstarted by the death of William Friedkin earlier this week) and still crave a solid film recommendation, watch any of the ones featured on our Best Movies of 2023 So Far list. Don’t waste 135 minutes of your time on Gran Turismo.
Rust in peace.
