Film

Gran Turismo

Name: Gran Turismo
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Action
Released: 2023
Cast: Archie Madekwe, David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Djimon Hounsou, Darren Barnet

Car-chase action
Light-hearted

Gran Turismo is a wish-fulfilment film about a teenager whose obsessive Gran Turismo gaming translates into real racing talent. Director Neill Blomkamp brings kinetic energy and genuine emotion to what could have been mere marketing. It's for anyone who's felt their passion dismissed as frivolous, and for people who just like watching someone get absurdly good at something.

TMDb rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy underdog sports stories that lean on feel-good sincerity and big-engine spectacle, and you don't mind a movie that tells you plainly how it wants you to feel.

Skip it if you want a gritty, grounded look at motorsport or a sharp, subtle character study; this one trades realism for crowd-pleasing corniness and a fairly predictable rise.

What it asks of you: Runs about two and a quarter hours, with a conventional three-act build that spends plenty of time on training montages and family drama before the racing fully takes over.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Top Gun: Maverick2022

A master class in practical action filmmaking where the human cost of speed matters as much as the spectacle. Like Gran Turismo, it's about legacy, mentorship, and proving yourself to ghosts in your head.

But Three hours of fighter jets might feel less emotionally immediate than racing cars, even if the emotional architecture is nearly identical.

Drive2011

A minimalist meditation on precision, silence, and what it means to be truly skilled at something dangerous. The same sense that technical mastery is its own kind of poetry.

But Ryan Gosling's driver barely speaks. If you want character development and banter, this is a austere alternative to Gran Turismo's warmth.

Ford v Ferrari2019

Matt Damon and Christian Bale in a film about obsession, engineering, and the gap between corporate greed and human achievement. It shares Gran Turismo's love of racing and mentorship.

But Nearly three and a half hours; it moves with the pace of 1960s bureaucracy before it moves with the pace of cars.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Gran Turismo

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Senna2010

Both explore the mythology of racing talent and the person inside it. Where Gran Turismo is about potential becoming real, Senna is about greatness consuming the person who holds it.

A documentary about Ayrton Senna that feels like a tragedy. It's about obsession, national pressure, and what it costs to be the best at something that can kill you. Gran Turismo is the fantasy; this is the real weight.

But No dramatization, no narrative shortcuts—just footage, interviews, and the knowledge that it ends in death. Relentlessly serious.

The Karate Kid1984

The DNA of every underdog film about a kid and a mentor. Wax-on-wax-off is Gran Turismo's gaming grind—repetition as revelation, patience as power.

But Forty years old. If you need modern filmmaking language and contemporary references, this will feel quaint.

Rush2013

Ron Howard's film about rival drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt; faster, angrier, and darker than Gran Turismo, but driven by the same hunger to understand what makes someone exceptional.

But Lauda's burn injury is graphic and upsetting. The film takes real suffering seriously, which can overshadow the racing.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby2006

Will Ferrell's racing comedy is anarchic and stupid in the best way. It loves racing culture while gently mocking the arrogance it breeds.

But Slapstick and cringe comedy aren't for everyone. The film's affection for its protagonist is sometimes buried under jokes at his expense.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby poster

Days of Thunder1990

Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall in a NASCAR film that's sincere about the sport and the people who live for it. Duvall's mentor work rivals David Harbour's.

But 1990 action filmmaking looks slower, louder, and less elegant than you might expect. The dialogue can be clunky.

Herbie Fully Loaded2005

A film about a girl and a sentient Volkswagen competing in racing—goofy, earnest, and unafraid to be corny about loving cars and believing in yourself.

But It's fundamentally silly. If you want racing treated as serious art, this is the wrong film.

Groundhog Day1993

Both are films about mastery through grinding repetition until something clicks. One uses video games; the other uses metaphysics. Same engine, different fuel.

Bill Murray lives the same day forever and uses repetition to become perfect—at piano, at ice skating, at seduction, at being human. It's Gran Turismo's narrative at the spiritual level.

But It's a comedy from 1993 about existential dread and self-improvement through endless repetition. That's niche even if it's brilliant.

The North Water2021

A young man written off by the establishment must exceed every expectation to reclaim his place. But where Gran Turismo celebrates the win, The Wager asks what the cost of vindication really is.

A BBC series dramatizing a true story of a young naval officer who loses his ship and must prove himself again in a world determined to see him as a failure. Structured like Gran Turismo but with 18th-century stakes and quiet devastation.

But Slow-paced, period drama, and deeply concerned with institutional humiliation. None of Gran Turismo's kinetic rush or youth-culture appeal.