Flawed but highly entertaining

Rating: 8/10 (1 December 2019)

I have read several of the reviews posted here for "Ford vs. Ferrari," and I generally agree with most of the criticisms: too long (15-30 minutes could have been cut, in my opinion), too many cliched scenes, and a very cliched character in the form of Leo Beebee, a Ford executive, who is clearly supposed to embody evil, soulless corporate greed (in case you have an IQ under 50 and can't figure that out within the first two minutes that character is on screen). Finally, I agree that Christian Bale's accent sounded cockney as opposed to Brummie--and I'm an American. Speaking of accents, I am surprised none of the nit-pickers here has mentioned something else I found slightly annoying: the character of Ken Miiles' son is portrayed by a boy with a strong English accent, but Miles' son was growing up in California and therefore would have had an American accent. Maybe the producers just thought a kid with an English accent would sound more appealing to audiences. (The child is a good actor, at any rate.)
All that aside, even a huge movie snob like me found the film highly entertaining, and the length bothered me less than in other overly-long movies. (I believe most Hollywood movies in recent years could benefit from losing at least 15 minutes, frankly--Black Panther and Wonder Woman immediately spring to mind, although there are many others.) I did not go to see this expecting a documentary but rather to be entertained. I will add that I attended it with my brother, who is a former automotive journalist and therefore, to put it mildly, a real "petrolhead," While he commented that there were definitely historical inaccuracies in the film, he genuinely enjoyed it as well. (Since leaving automotive journalism behind, my brother has worked in Hollywood, so that probably helps; he does not have any expectation that a Hollywood release is aiming for historical accuracy, since he knows that business well too.) However, I can understand why other automotive and/or racing obsessives might be more bothered by the film's flaws. If you are simply looking for well-acted, fast-paced (well, during the on-track scenes) fun, I highly recommend this.