Is It Difficult to Make a Good Car Movie?

THE GREATEST MODERN filmmakers love cars. Consider Brad Pitt swerving through Laurel Canyon in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, or the contemplative pursuit to Berkeley in a poppy-red Alfa in Mike Nichols’s The Graduate, or the more recent film buff hilly scene from Paul Thomas-Anderson’s One Battle After Another, which calls back to Steve McQueen in Peter Yates’s 1968 Bullitt.

In these films, cars exist as a physical manifestation of a character’s inner world, like a protective bubble of identity while a character is out in the chaotic American landscape. In a car, one can speak to themselves, listen to music, and experience whatever exciting plot they may bring to an otherwise normal road.

So why doesn’t this apply to so many of today’s films? Among racing fanatics, the consensus on car films is meek. They say Ford vs. Ferrari was horrifically inaccurate (it was). As for 2025’s F1, viewers are immersed in a cinematic lens-flare version of racing, without any sense of belief that Brad Pitt is driving a modified F2, even though he was actually driving a 2023 McLaren F1 car. There’s Ferrari of course, with which motorheads and regular viewers alike had issues, for good reason.

Cars are certainly of interest to the filmgoer, with F1 grossing $600M — even Disney’s Cars trilogy achieved $1.4B at the box office. While the appetite is certainly there, most self-proclaimed car enthusiasts I know eschew the new stuff, harping on the same three classics: Bullitt, Grand Prix, and Le Mans.

Where are we going wrong? What would it take to make a car movie that car people love? My hunch is that the secret is in the production of the film. Luckily, I know one of the best production designers in the world: Daniel Frank. A self-described “Vehicle Designer” and “Vehicle Art Director,” Frank has worked on and won countless awards for Black Panther, The Batman, Superman, Tron: Ares, Jurassic World, Superman, and more.

A true optimist, Frank lauded contemporary car films. “We are getting closer and closer to that visceral, tactical experience that we find so intoxicating. It’s almost impossible to convey what a gear change feels like to someone sitting in a static chair, but the coverage felt new.”

Frank has worked on both the realistic and the fantastic. Notably, he conceptualized the latest iteration of the Batmobile in 2022’s The Batman. “One of the unique problems of vehicle design for movies is how broad the design prompts are,” he says.

Frank is often brought into a project before there is even a script: “Sometimes we will reference certain cars or periods, like muscle cars for The Batman. More likely, a specific detail or styling gesture becomes the basis for a design. Or, it might be something totally different, like an animal — we designed an entire submersible based on the forms of a crab for Avatar 2 & 3. I’ve pitched Duesenberg designs for superhero movies! I’m always bringing my love of old cars with me. And then, sometimes it just needs to be badass. It’s all in service of telling a story, driving the narrative, creating something special.”

Production and vehicle design take more than just creating prototypes and building vessels; one must engineer to the beats in a script, directors’ beats and the camera itself. There are stunts, other props and, of course, safety to make a shot that feels grounded, even in the realm of the fantastical. So, what has to be present for an automotive film to appeal to us hardened motorheads?

“I think people forget that a car is simply exciting. Cars are so dynamic and enthralling by the nature of what they are. When we embrace the simplicity of that relationship between the driver, the machine, and the audience, there’s a lot there. We’ve seen it every which way, but maybe that’s why the classics stood the test of time — because they are honoring that for what it is, and saying that’s enough,” explains Frank.

His hypothesis is that an embrace of the mechanics — the feeling of a gear shift, the vibration you feel in the driver’s seat, the smell of exhaust that stays on your clothes — those things will captivate the viewer more than Brad Pitt.

“Audiences are really sophisticated. People who love cars, even in a casual way, are very knowledgeable. They know what’s right or wrong in terms of the physics. It’s such an intuitive thing. That’s kind of the foundational thing that we need to adhere to,” he says.

The car itself is often a character and needs to be treated as such. Though, contrary to how show-stopping his work is, Frank doesn’t want his work to be the main takeaway from a film.

“We are all in service of something else, working towards something bigger. It’s really a craft. I feel we are seeing a shift to embrace practical effects, rather than digital, post production stuff,” says Frank. “Honestly, it’s so similar to restoring a car. You know it’s going to take time and money, but you also know you’re supporting these amazing craftspeople with tools that are often older than they are. You do it not just because you want a beautiful car, but also because you’re contributing to this culture that is important in and of itself.”

Frank and I agree that we are moving towards something really interesting when it comes to motoring in film — directors seem to be referencing the formal gestures from the classics and bringing them forward, be it accurate sound, vintage- inspired interiors, new ways of mounting cameras to cars, and more.

Frank’s optimism aside, I alone personally raise you one more challenge, because I’m a stickler: watch Brad Pitt in the canyon scene in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, and then his big race in F1 back-to-back, just for fun.

In Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, he’s driving a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. In F1, he’s driving a Formula 1 full-blown race car. Same actor, just a few years apart. Tell me he’s not driving the hell out of the Karmann Ghia — there’s a purity — a true awareness that when he’s driving, he is on the razor wire between wildness and control.

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