'Senna' handles its subject and his need-for-speed career well

PG-13 (strong language, disturbing images); 106 min.

Senna is a top-tier sports documentary for a lot of reasons. But the filmmakers' biggest asset was the stunning volume of footage available to them. Director Asif Kapadia couldn't have crafted a more exciting piece of cinema if he storyboarded the scenes and filmed them from scratch.

It's hard to decide who is going to enjoy this movie more: hard-core open wheel racing fans, or people who have never heard of legendary driver Ayrton Senna. From the prodigy's beginnings as a go-kart racer in Brazil to his event-filled reign as a Formula 1 champion, there's enough thrill of victory and agony of defeat for three films.

Senna is a journey back in time, with no narrator or visuals from the present day. Racing footage from the 1980s and early 1990s are occasionally augmented with a voiceover from a key racing figure, offering a ghostly analysis of on-screen events.

Even when Senna was an upstart young driver, it's as if the racing world was planning for this documentary. There were cameras on the track, on the car, in seemingly every closed-door meeting and every alleyway where two drivers might meet. Kapadia takes what had to be an imposing amount of footage and crafts something complex, stylish and always coherent.

A documentary with subtitles is a tough sell for the mainstream, so it may be wise for moviegoers to work a bait-and-switch. Tell your art film-hating spouse or friend you're going to see The Fast and the Furious VI or Days of Thunder 2. By the time the adrenaline-filled ride is over, you will be forgiven.

In Portuguese with English subtitles.

Exclusive: Angelika Dallas

-- Peter Hartlaub,

San Francisco Chronicle