Ford Vs Ferrari (or Le Mans ‘66)

Ford Vs Ferrari (or Le Mans ‘66) (2019)

My Oscar enthusiastic friends and I listen weekly to a podcast called This Had Oscar Buzz. It’s a lot of fun and you’d do well to give it a spin every Tuesday. If nothing else it’ll provide you with a great game to play in the pub with your film-fan friends. Anyway, they’ve coined a phrase when referencing a film that no one remembers; “a movie that fully does not exist”. It’s all I could think about when I saw this title on the list of Best Picture nominees. Did anyone see it? Please do speak up if you did. According to IMDb it grossed more than $223m worldwide so I suppose some people saw it!

It should come as no surprise that this is not my thing. Really could not be bothered setting aside 2.5 hours on a film about race cars. But the beauty of this little endeavour of mine is that it forced me to watch this gem of a film.

The negatives: the subject. I still haven’t bothered with Pixar’s Cars. But I do like story’s about perseverance and underdogs. (The scene where Matt Damon takes Mr Ford Jr. for a spin... oof).

The positives: the era (1960s). California (see my last review). American diners. Sunshine. Sixties playlists. The always affable Matt Damon. Christian Bale has a brummy accent. What’s not to love?! He has a bad reputation old Bale but I’ve always liked him, plus this is the director’s second film with him so that’s gotta be good!

Watch this early one Sunday morning when you can’t sleep and you want to earn a sense of accomplishment by 10am.

7 Nostalgic Thumbs Up!