Apple’s had a very good run with its string of successful streaming shows on TV+ over the past six years and has frequently been called “the new HBO." But the company has struggled to land a true hit with its feature films that it bestowed theatrical releases on. Sure, they’ve won Oscars for CODA and movies like Killers of the Flower Moon were well-received. But none of them have been able to capture the scale of a massive cultural moment. I have good news, I think F1 is finally that film.

I wasn’t any sort of Formula One fan going into the movie, in fact I was purely interested in it because it was an Apple production. But I left the theater both captivated by the film and seemingly on the brink of becoming an actual F1 fan. F1 is, somehow, simultaneously a tremendously enjoyable no frills summer blockbuster and an artistic masterpiece. I saw it in IMAX at a fan preview event in New York and I can say without hesitation that it is a real triumph. See it on the biggest screen with the loudest speakers that you can, trust me. This movie is a technical marvel and the soundtrack is spectacular.

I love movies, but I’m no professional film critic. I enjoyed F1 and I suspect that a lot of other folks will too. I think that the real end result of this is that tons and tons of people all around the world who weren’t interested in Formula One before the movie, will leave absolutely fascinated by it. A lot of new F1 fans are going to spring up over the course of the summer. I think this is particularly the case given that they did such an incredible job of weaving in actual F1 players, teams, locales, and staff members. The time it took to film was well worth it given how they were able to ground the story in what felt like the real world. Even the fictional team Apex GP felt real and there wasn’t a single performance in the film that fell flat. The casting was perfect, Brad and Damson somehow made it feel like they really were drivers. But I particularly loved Javier Bardem’s Ruben and Kerry Condon’s Kate, who both really shepherded the plot.

At the end of the day, F1 is something that I think anyone can enjoy. Some will analyze it and be able to see it for the achievement that it is and others will be able to flip their brains off and just kick back with a badass flick. I’m sure there’ll be haters, the sticks in the mud who see it in the same vein as any other racing movie. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

One last note: As an Apple observer, it’s impossible to not watch it and see all of the product placement. This might have been the most explicit product placement that has occurred in any Apple production thus far. AirPods Max, iPhones, Pro Display XDRs, Mac Studios, Magic peripherals, and so on all appear either perfectly manicured or beautifully well-used throughout the film. The product placement didn’t bother me and most people won’t notice, but being who I am it was unavoidable. Combining the wealth of Apple products with a badass racing story made F1 feel like it was a movie cooked up in a lab specifically for Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, and Eddy Cue. It is the quintessential Apple executive movie. That’s not a bad thing at all, it just made it feel even more like an Apple product. I was skeptical of how much effort the company was putting into marketing F1, but now I totally get it and I’m glad they opted for the strategy that they did.

F1 is so good, so well conceived of, and carefully crafted that it might just be the first Apple production that is as good as any of Apple’s iconic hardware products. It’s the first time that I’ve felt like the services shift has truly paid off. I didn’t know if Apple should make art, I always believed their job was to enable art. But it turns out they’re now enabling art on an almost unfathomable level. I think we’ll remember F1 as an inflection point for the company.