Why is this movie trying to make my commute feel like a Top Gun mission?

If you enjoy dry, mid-century industrial films that take themselves way too seriously, Formations might be your weirdly specific cup of tea. If you're looking for an actual movie with a plot, characters, or even a single spark of joy, you will absolutely hate this.

The whole premise is that we should all treat our sedans like fighter jets. It tries to convince you that the guy in the beige Toyota next to you is part of your 'flight team.' Honestly, most people can barely handle a roundabout, let alone a synchronized barrel roll. The narration is so earnest it almost hurts.

There is this one shot where they try to film a 'bird's eye perspective' of a four-way intersection. It lasts about forty seconds too long and just feels like someone forgot to yell 'cut.' You can feel the director really wanting you to have an epiphany about your blind spots. Instead, I just kept thinking about how much I need an oil change.

It has that weird, stiff energy you find in stuff like Birth of a New America, where the message is heavy-handed but the execution is somehow completely flat. There's no music, just that weird, hollow room tone that makes everything feel slightly cursed. 🚗💨

My random notes:

• The narrator sounds like he's reading a manual for a dishwasher.
• The 'unseen vehicle around the corner' sounds more like a horror movie threat than a traffic tip.
• I think I spotted the same car three times in different scenes.
• Why is there so much focus on the steering wheels?

It's not as chaotic as Jumping Beans, but it has that same feeling of being a project that just needed to exist for some reason. It’s definitely not a lost classic. It's just a strange artifact of a time when people thought film strips could solve bad driving habits.

Watch it if you want to be confused for fifteen minutes. Otherwise, skip it and just use your turn signal. That’s probably more effective than whatever this was trying to teach me.