OSCAR-INSPIRED SUCCESS THAT
Battery cells and comparatively slow and quiet race cars have struggled to win over vast swathes of motorsport fans, so what chance do they have at capturing the attention of a far broader audience?
Academy Award-winning director Fisher Stevens and Malcolm Venville are part of that wider, largely motorsport-apathetic base. That outside perspective allowed them to make a critical decision when it came to producing And We Go Green, the feature-length Formula E documentary.
It’s not a 98-minute study about technology or cars driving around complicated, inner-city circles. Those elements are present, but only ever peripheral. Instead, the film is motivated by the 2017-18 title fight between main protagonists Jean-eric Vergne, Lucas di Grassi and Sam Bird. It uses their bravado and arrogance, their rivalries and extensive criticism of one another – and the on-track action – to motivate the story by sticking closely to the more soulful and evocative human stories. This was undoubtedly the right call.
The drivers discuss the mental drain that came with failing to establish themselves in Formula 1.
Clips of the crashes that led to the deaths of Jules Bianchi and Ayrton Senna are present, too. These elements contextualise the emotion that has motivated the characters of this film to compete in FE, and it undoubtedly makes for compelling viewing.
But the core issue here is that the film bases itself on events that are rapidly heading towards being three years out of date.
Part of the success of the Netflix Drive to Survive serial is that viewers can binge-watch the show and be enthralled. When it then comes to tuning in to the subsequent F1 season they can assume a certain level of knowledge about which teams are competitive and be familiar with almost all of the drivers.
The same cannot be said for viewers of And We Go Green. For the duration, the action unfolds in the facelifted Gen1 cars – whereas we are now into the second season of the wildly different-looking Gen2 machine. Similarly, there are new teams and a host of new drivers to get to know.
For instance, inaugural FE champion Nelson
Piquet Jr – who features heavily, and is owed a degree of sympathy for the way he portrays his seemingly cold and distant father – has been completely absent from the grid for more than a year.
The jump between the events of the film and contemporary FE is jarring. Maybe this won’t matter as much in time – in the same way that the brilliant
The Last Dance recalls the late 1990s in gripping fashion. But, for now, this is a particular bugbear of And We Go Green. It’s also staggering that Sebastien Buemi – who holds the records for the most series wins with
13 – is completely absent for the duration.
Aside from a few editing niggles – switching the order of the Berlin and Paris E-prix, seemingly without reason – the rest of the film strikes a pleasing note. Producer Leonardo Dicaprio’s presence in the paddock is an amusing on-screen addition rather than a Hollywood distraction. The talking head interviews don’t patronise viewers by over-explaining each incident and lens flares help to glamorise the portrayal.
What’s refreshing is it appears as though the directors were given a sizeable deal of creative freedom. This isn’t a warts-and-all documentary, but nor is it a straight up PR exercise. One of the opening scenes shows the
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