Kim Bodnia Archives – CULTURE MIX

June 17, 2025

by Carla Hay

Damson Idris and Brad Pitt in “F1 The Movie” (Photo courtesy of Apple Studios)

Directed by Joseph Kosinski

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the world in 2023, the action film “F1 The Movie” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people and Latin people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A middle-aged race-car driver, who quit Formula 1 (F1) more than 30 years ago, is convinced to rejoin F1 to save a losing team, and he clashes with the team’s young star driver.

Culture Audience: “F1 The Movie” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, Formula 1 racing, and entertaining action movies with memorable characters.

Brad Pitt and Kerry Condon in “F1 The Movie” (Photo courtesy of Apple Studios)

“F1 The Movie,” which has award-worthy sound, uses the template of 1986’s “Top Gun”: Two cocky rival teammates in high-stakes competitions; sexual seduction of a female leader; and thrilling action based on daredevil speeding. The main characters in “F1 The Movie” are in the Formula 1 racing business, while the main characters in “Top Gun” are racing jet pilots in the U.S. Navy, but it’s the same type of movie: predictable but crowd-pleasing.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, “F1 The Movie” is exactly the globe-trotting, action-packed spectacle that you think it will be. Beyond the action, the main characters are believable, even if some of the F1 situations in the movie are not very believable. The movie’s sound is top-notch, with Claudio Miranda’s cinematography a close second in the best technical qualities about “F1: The Movie.” Hans Zimmer’s rousing music score is also a standout quality of the movie.

“F1: The Movie” (which takes place in 2023) begins by showing race driver Sonny Hayes (played by Brad Pitt), who is a nonconformist American, winning the Daytona 500. Sonny is a free agent who lives in his van and travels around the world to compete in whatever racing competition will have him. In 1993, Sonny was a rising young F1 driver who flamed out at the Spanish Grand Prix, where he had a horrific accident that left him seriously injured. After he recovered from his physical injuries, Sonny decided he no longer wanted to part of a corporate team and decided to become a completely independent racer.

Various conversations in the movie also reveal that Sonny has a troubled personal history: He’s had three failed marriages (one marriage was annulled; the other two ended in divorce), he has a gambling addiction, and he often parties to hard, which means he has unnamed substance abuse issues that might or might not be completely in his past. Even with all of these issues, Sonny is sought out by a former racing rival named Ruben Cervantes (played by Javier Bardem), who is now the owner of a losing F1 team called APX GP, which has never won a championship.

Ruben tracks down Sonny after Sonny has won the Daytona 500 and offers Sonny a driver’s position on the APX GP team. Ruben’s offer includes a multimillion-dollar salary if Sonny can help the team win the Constructors’ Championship, the top prize for F1 teams. APX GP has nine races remaining to reach this goal.

Sonny doesn’t care about the money. Sonny is enticed by Ruben’s pitch that if Sonny can lead the team to this championship, then Sonny would be considered the best car racer in the world. And so, Sonny accepts the offer with a certain amount of skepticism because he wants to see what type of car he’ll be using before he’s fully convinced to take the offer.

Ruben introduces Sonny to three principal members of the APX GP crew: Kate McKenna (played by Kerry Condon), who is brash and outspoken, is the team’s technical director and the first woman in F1 to have this position; Dodge (played by Abdul Salis), who is friendly and is the team’s chief mechanic; and Kasper Smolinski (played by Kim Bodnia), who is no-nonsense and by-the-book, is the team principal. It’s a very international team because Ruben is Spanish, Kate is Irish, Dodge is from an unnamed African country, and Kasper is Danish.

Of these three staffers, Kate is the most skeptical that Sonny will be a good fit for the team. She takes pleasure in telling Sonny that Sonny wasn’t Ruben’s first choice. Ruben has asked nine other drivers before asking Sonny. Eight of those drivers said no, while the other driver didn’t bother to respond. Kate is a divorcée whose ex-husband didn’t want her to take this F1 job because of the time-consuming demands. Just like Sonny, Kate has something to prove because she left more stable career in aerospace engineering for the volatile world of F1.

Ruben warns Kate about Sonny’s “bad boy” reputation of having sexual flings with many women (including those who work with Sonny) and tells her to keep things between her and Sonny strictly professional. Of course, in a movie like “F1,” when the arrogant protagonist has tension-filled conversations with only the woman in a position of power for the protagonist, you just know there’s going to some mind games going on that are really just sexual foreplay.

Someone who isn’t welcoming at all to Sonny is Joshua Pearce (played by Damson Idris), who was considered the biggest star on the APX GP team until Sonny came along. Even though Ruben assures Joshua that Joshua’s place on the team is secure, Joshua can already see that Sonny will be getting special treatment because Sonny is expected to “save” the team and lead the team to a championship, which is the role that Joshua wants for himself.

Expect to see snarky comments between Joshua and Sonny, who bicker in public and in private. Joshua thinks Sonny is too old to lead the team. Sonny thinks Joshua is too inexperienced to lead the team. And you can almost do a countdown to win Joshua and Sonny have a shouting match and get physically aggressive with each other.

Adding to the tension, some people on the team find out Ruben’s secret plan to sell the team as a way out of this mess. Ruben is under pressure from the APX GP board of directors to deliver a championship, or else Ruben will be fired and forced to sell the team. A board member named Peter Banning (played by Tobias Menzies) seems to be the only board member who openly supports Ruben’s idea to bring Sonny to the team. Peter thinks it’s a bold risk worth taking.

Pitt’s depiction of Sonny is the same type of smirking but emotionally damaged loner character that he’s been doing in his most recent movies where he’s had a starring role, such as 2024’s “Wolfs,” 2022’s “Babylon” and 2022’s “Bullet Train.” Sonny sees himself as a brave maverick, but other people see him as a delusional has-been/never-was. The movie plays guessing games on how much of a team player Sonny will be in trying to get this championship.

Idris has the more interesting character of Joshua, who isn’t as predictable as Sonny is and who goes through a tougher time than Sonny does in trying to achieve the same goals. Just like Sonny, Joshua is arrogant and a little rough around the edges. But Joshua’s protective widowed mother Bernadette (played by Sarah Niles) is always close by and is the type of mother who tells Joshua to make a private apology to Sonny after Joshua made an impolite remark by using the word “elderly” to describe Sonny at a press conference.

Real-life F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton, who is a producer of “F1 The Movie, has a non-verbal cameo as himself, where all he does in the movie is give comptetitive looks in Sonny’s direction. And that means what we all know: A real-life F1 superstar can’t outshine the intended star of this story. Make no mistake: “F1 The Movie” wants to be just as iconic as “Top Gun,” but race-car driving doesn’t have quite the same danger appeal as combat air piloting. However, “F1 The Movie” is definitely a breakthrough in how F1 is portrayed in a feature film.

Warner Bros. Pictures and Apple Studios will release “F1 The Movie” in U.S. cinemas on June 27, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie will be shown in U.S. cinemas on June 25, 2025.

May 31, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Young Woman and the Sea”

Directed by Joachim Rønning

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States and Europe from 1914 to 1926, the dramatic film “Young Woman and the Sea” (based on true events) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one black person) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Champion swimmer Trudy Ederle, who becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel, defies expectations and sexism in her quest for greatness.

Culture Audience: “Young Woman and the Sea” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of “against all odds” stories about underestimated athletes or women in patriarchal societies.

Ethan Rouse, Kim Bodnia, Jeanette Hain, Daisy Ridley and Tilda Cobham-Hervey in “Young Woman and the Sea” (Photo by Elena Nenkova/Disney Enterprises, Inc.)

“Young Woman and the Sea” is a traditionally made sports drama that might seem old-fashioned to some viewers. However, this biopic about champion swimmer Trudy Ederle has solid acting and themes that don’t get outdated, such as triumphing over obstacles. People who like stories about iconic achievers who are determined but modest about their accomplishments will find plenty to like about how Ederle is portrayed in this inspirational film.

Directed by Joachim Rønning, “Young Woman and the Sea” is based on Glenn Stout’s 2009 non-fiction book “Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel.” The movie’s adapted screenplay was written by Jeff Nathanson. Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle (who was born in 1905 and died in 2003) is considered one of the best competitive female swimmers of all time, not just because of the records she broke but also because of the barriers she broke for other female swimmers. There’s nothing complicated about this movie, which is told in mostly chronological order. For the purposes of this review, the real Trudy Ederle will be called Ederle, while the Trudy Ederle character in the movie will be called Trudy.

“Young Woman and the Sea” begins in the mid-1920s, by showing Trudy in her early 20s (played by Daisy Ridley) about to dive into a large body of water to train for her historic swim across the English Channel. She is covered in an unnamed lubricant (it looks like Vaseline), which is what long-distance swimmers use to help deal with cold-water temperatures. Trudy is singing what the movie later reveals to be her favorite song: the 1920 foxtrot tune “Ain’t We Got Fun,” written by Richard A. Whiting, Raymond B. Egan and Gus Kahn.

The movie then shows an extensive flashback to Trudy’s childhood in 1914, when she was 9 years old. Trudy (played Olive Abercrombie) has made a near-miraculous recovery from measles that left her bedridden and her family worried that she might die. However, the measles would lead to Trudy having hearing loss that got worse when she was in her 30s and eventually became legally deaf.

Trudy lives in New York City with her German immigrant parents; her older sister Margaret “Meg” Ederle; and her younger brother Henry Ederle Jr. (“Young Woman and the Sea” was actually filmed in Bulgaria.) Meg is about two or three years older than Trudy. Henry is about five or six years younger than Trudy. Tilda Cobham-Hervey has the role of young-adult Meg. Lilly Aspell has the role of adolescent Meg. Raphael J. Bishop has the role of pre-teen Henry. Ethan Rouse has the role of teenage Henry.

Henry Ederle Sr. (played by Kim Bodnia) is a butcher who believes in a strict, patriarchal way of living, where men are supposed to be thought of and treated as superior to women. Gertrude Ederle (played by Jeanette Hain) is strong-willed and thinks that women and girls should not have restrictions placed on them because of gender. In other words, Gertrude is a feminist before the word “feminist” was invented.

Getrude’s belief in gender equality plays a crucial role in giving Trudy the motivation and opportunities to become a champion swimmer. Early on in the movie, when Ederle kids are all underage, Meg and Trudy can see from their home that ship has gone up in flames at a nearby port. Gertrude tells them the tragic news that many people (mostly women) on the ship drowned because they didn’t know how to swim, and they stayed on the burning boat rather than risk trying to swim to shore nearby.

Henry Sr. says that Henry Jr. will definitely learn how to swim, but Meg doesn’t need to learn. Gertrude strongly disagrees and says that Meg and Trudy have a right to learn how to swim, just like anyone else does. Gertrude believes that knowing how to swim is a life-saving skill that shouldn’t be deprived or bestowed upon people based on gender. Henry Sr. also believes that it isn’t ladylike for girls or women to be in swimming competitions.

In the meantime, Trudy is determined to learn how to swim, even though her father disapproves. Trudy’s doctor has also warned that Trudy shouldn’t get too much water in her ears, or it could cause more hearing loss for Trudy. After much persistence from Trudy, her father agrees to teach Trudy how to swim at Coney Island’s beach. Due to her recent illness, Trudy cannot use a public swimming pool.

Trudy is a natural talent and soon becomes obsessed with swimming. When Trudy and Meg are teenagers, Henry Sr. is still adamant that they can’t become competitive swimmers. So what does Getrude do? She enrolls Trudy and Meg in an all-female swimming team, led by a tough-but-caring coach named Charlotte “Eppy” Epstein (played by Sian Clifford), who gives the two sisters the training to become more disciplined swimmers.

It isn’t long before Trudy outshines Meg as a swimmer in competitons. Meg seems to have some envy about Trudy’s superior swimming skills, but Meg’s envy doesn’t fester into full-blown jealousy, mainly because Meg is not as passionate about swimming as Trudy is. Trudy puts swimming above everything else in her life. In the movie, Trudy is never shown having any friends or dating anyone. Meg is Trudy’s closest confidante.

Meg starts to rebel a little against her father. One night, Meg comes home late and smelling like liquor. Meg admits to her disapproving father that she’s been on a date with a guy named Chip Anderson (played by Hyoie O’Grady), who has been courting Meg and will soon ask Meg to marry him. Henry Sr. flies into a rage because he thinks his daughters should marry men of German heritage. (The movie takes a short detour into Meg’s love life, which doesn’t go according to what Meg really wants.)

Meanwhile, a montage shows that Trudy wins several swimming competitions on a local, state, and then national level, often breaking swimming records along the way. It’s inevitable that Trudy trains for the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. And then, in 1926, Trudy decides to take on her biggest challenge of all: swimming across the English Channel, which is a feat that had never been accomplished by a woman at the time.

“Young Woman and the Sea” has the expected scenes of men trying to block or discourage Trudy’s ambitions, simply because of her female gender. Trudy’s father is one of the chief culprits of this sexism. And for a long time, he refuses to celebrate Trudy’s accomplishments. Trudy’s mother Gertrude is always supportive of her, but Trudy wants her father’s approval too.

For her Olympic training, Trudy gets a wealthy sponsor named James Sullivan (played by Glenn Fleshler), a pompous blowhard who wants Trudy to be among the six American female swimmers whom he’s sponsoring for the Olympics. James insists that Trudy and the other women swimmers have a male coach. Jabez Wolffe (played by Christopher Eccleston), a Scottish has-been professional swimmer, becomes Trudy’s coach. It becomes obvious early on that Jabez is very jealous that Trudy is more talented than he could ever be.

Not all of the men in Trudy’s life are sexist and condescending. Trudy meets a rebellious sailor named Bill Burgess (played by Stephen Graham), who’s got a similar spirit of non-conformity as Trudy has. The first time that Trudy sees Bill, he’s at the Coney Island beach being arrested for swimming naked. Bill ends up becoming Trudy’s sailor navigator during her English Channel swimming marathon. Trudy also develops a friendly acquaintance with another swimmer named Benji Zammit (played by Alexander Karim), who also wants to swim across the English Channel.

Even if viewers have never heard of Trudy Ederle before seeing this movie, “Young Woman Sea” has no real surprises because it checks all the usual plot boxes and follows the same formula as many other sports movies. A noticeable flaw of the movie is that it doesn’t accurately depict the type of hearing loss that the real Ederle had during this time in her life. There’s a brief mention of her hearing loss but then Trudy’s hearing loss is never really mentioned or shown again.

The acting performances fit the tone of the movie very well. Ridley is quite good but not outstanding in “Young Woman and the Sea,” which unrealistically makes Trudy look like she has no personality flaws. The swimming scenes are thrilling though, with Oscar Faura’s cinematography making viewers feel immersed in the water along with Trudy, even in some of the scenes that are obviously not in a real ocean. Unlike the treacherous waters that Trudy swims in, “Young Woman and the Sea” offers nothing edgy or unpredictable. The movie is a perfectly fine option for anyone who wants to see a story that can appeal to many generations of people.

Walt Disney Pictures released “Young Woman and the Sea” in select U.S. cinemas on May 31, 2024.

Tag: Kim Bodnia

Review: ‘F1 The Movie,’ starring Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies and Javier Bardem

Review: ‘Young Woman and the Sea,’ starring Daisy Ridley, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham, Kim Bodnia, Christopher Eccleston and Glenn Fleshler