Gran Turismo (2023) review

Nissan Motor Company executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) pitches an idea to management to gather some of the world's best players of the popular racing simulator Gran Turismo (created by Kazunori Yamauchi) and have them get into actual cars and compete, and so they recruit Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) to attend the newly formed GT Academy ... and it turns out he actually has talent.  This is based on a true story - Jann did become a professional driver - but it reuses worn-out genre elements: you have the overconfident lead, the tacked-on love interest (Maeve Courtier-Lilley), the acid-tongued rival (Darren Barnet), the disapproving father (Djimon Hounsou), the cranky mentor (David Harbour) ... and, for "emotion," there's an accident at the Nürburgring that kills a spectator (which unfortunately did happen).  Blomkamp's direction is slick if a little plastic - he's trying to replicate the appearance and experience of the game - and, of course, this is all designed to sell more consoles and automobiles.  For our next experiment, perhaps we should bring together the most skilled Call of Duty gamers and have them train with the U.S. Army Rangers.  What could possibly go wrong?