The old auto-racing chestnut has been done before. Many, many, many times. And it will be done again. But I seriously doubt it will ever again be done better, or even this well. Not what you expected from an old cynic like me? Well, credit where credit is due.

The action scenes are, as you might expect from Joseph Kosinski, the guy who directed Top Gun: Maverick, state-of-the-art, you-are-there, and totally believable. The between-races melodrama—about a veteran race driver (Brad Pitt) coming out of retirement to mentor a talented young rookie (Damson Idris) on an underdog racing team—is surprisingly coherent and no dopier than it needs to be. Javier Bardem is effective as the team leader, and Kerry Condon nails it as the car-designing love interest.

But let’s be honest; the film succeeds mostly on Pitt’s breezy charm. His character is not above wink-wink skullduggery and making creative use of the sport’s myriad rules and regulations to gain an often decisive second or two on the track.

Movies like this can, literally, go around in circles and quickly grow dull. Kosinski brilliantly prevents this from happening. It runs two and a half hours with never a dull moment. An instant classic. The movie had me at the opening race; a stroke of genius was backing up the sequence’s vroom-vroom with Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. Magic!

Big screen, please. For the sound. (155 min)