Meredith Bontrager

This movie is an incredible journey packed with adrenaline, emotions, twists, complex characters, and, of course, racing. I know close to nothing about cinematography, but I can confidently say that this movie was shot superbly. It pulls me into every moment and every feeling. The cgi is top-notch as well, a big refresher from some garbage cgi from big movie studios recently. The story is probably the best part. My favorite thing about the story (and in the whole movie) is the masterful way tension is built up and sustained, making every loss a gut punch, and every victory a win for the audience, too. The plot is captivating and the pacing is incredibly fluid (I love it when the people making the movie not only remember that pacing exists, but also execute it extremely well), making for a thrilling watch from start to finish (Line?). The characters are incredibly well done. I never, ever expected to like Jaan's trainer early in the film, but by the end, he'd become my favorite character by a long shot. Characters arcs might just be my favorite thing in story telling, and the trainer character arced harder than I've ever seen a side character arc. I honestly forgot that this is an underdog sports movie. To me, every underdog sports movie is mostly the same, but this movie? It's like a new genre entirely (Call it 'absolutely impossible odds but also really good but also true story somehow sports movie'). It feels incredibly unique and entirely new. In short, this is one of the elusive movies that gets a 10/10 from me. I do not take my critiquing lightly, and Gran Turismo completely blew me away. I was trying to find errors with it that I could write here, but... yeah, I'm still trying to find them. It's just that good. Anyway, go watch it if you haven't. Highly recommend.