I am not a car enthusiast but thoroughly enjoyed this

Rating: 9/10 (16 November 2019)

Ford v Ferrari tells the story of the Ford Motor Company after being betrayed by Ferrari in an acquisition deal trying to design a car to compete in the 66' Le Mans race to beat Ferrari first and foremost. Henry Ford II (Letts) recruits Carol Shelby (Damon) and Ken Miles (Bale) to engineer and race a car respectively in order to finally become the first american manufactured car to win the race.
As someone who was initially unfamiliar with the story of the 66' Le Mans race; what the build up to it entailed and what happened afterwards I was consistently glued to the screen. In my mind the stakes were high and anything could happen. And this story does not sugarcoat any part of the details. It is an underdog story in the sense that Ford, a much smaller underdog car company that doesn't specialize in speed is going up against a juggernaut like Ferrari, a luxury car built to be expensive and flashy is truly a race. It also shows that there is much more to racing that just speed and design, the driver plays a crucial role. A well-established relationship between the car and driver is frugal because in this race they would have to spend upwards of 24 hours together, they have to know each other and what their limits are, otherwise there will be catastrophic consequences.
The acting performances are all fantastic, even if no one really has an Oscar worthy scene. Christian Bale does not quite reach his full potential but is still very transformative as a hot shot arrogant but talented driver. Matt Damon is also pretty good despite his accent not being that convincing. However the standout performance is Tracy Letts as Henry Ford II, who is determined to beat Ferrari at any costs, including getting into his very own car and trusting his very arrogant driver. His performance inside his own race car was both gripping and hilariously performed. The racing scenes were also very stellar, there is the typical drama that happens inside the pit, but seeing it transform from the pit to the track is really masterful build up, and what made the race scenes so engaging, as well as the directing by Mangold. If a race scene is able to craft so much motion sickness and tension by just showing a shot-reverse shot sequence, then this is a job done by a real racing enthusiast or a great director.
There were however a couple of scenes that didn't really work. For example, a couple of character drama scenes. I understand we have to show the life of Ken Miles, his wife and son who are still supportive of his dream. However this really isn't a character drama movie, it is a real life dramatization of events. There are scenes that are kind of meaningless is the larger retelling of the narrative. They might have happened in real life, but there was no real payoff to any of them. For example, Shelby is shown to have a bad heart and would never race again. This is set up and doesn't pay off at all. Many scenes might be telling a real life story, but don't really affect the narrative of Ford v Ferrari. A good fifteen minutes could have been trimmed and the movie would have stayed the same.
Ford v Ferrari tells an engaging story for car enthusiasts, it has enough racing to satisfy anyone who has a thirst for high speed action, who may also love stunt driving not extremely dumbed down. It can also spark an interest for people who aren't automotively challenged. It is not necessarily a masterpiece or even a Best Picture contender, but it a solid two and a half our watch. It is fast, it funny and it is thrilling most of the way.