"Know your lane!" "Finish your lap!" "Always carry a spare!" Exhortations come thick and fast in Neill Blomkamp’s (District 9, Elysium) fact-based racing drama – so much so that there are times it resembles a full-length version of those Armed Services recruitment ads they show before the main feature.
In another life, Jann Mardenborough might well have wound up like that bloke from Blyth who got "made in the Royal Navy". Instead, the Cardiff gamer found a different way to achieve his potential: by parlaying his skill on the titular racing simulator into a real-life career as a professional race-car speedster. How he did it provides the compelling engine for a film that is less a plug for the PlayStation phenomenon than a motorsports Rocky for its 80-million-odd players: a rags-to-riches tale of a plucky British underdog who, like Stallone’s Philly slugger before him, got handed a shot at the title.
