It's pretty much flawless. Well when i say flawless it's not the most amazing godly stunning thing put to film but in terms of what it sets out to achieve I kind of struggle to think where it could improve. It's akin to District B13's mission to entertain with parkour and action in that inside its own remit it brings 100%.

If I wanted to be a picky bastard I dunno the first 25 minutes in Formula 3 as a set up wasn't amazing but once you get to the meat the 1976 season it just blitzes you. The odd thing is if this wasn't a true story the plot and characters would be dismissed as slightly absurd and contrived but this honestly is how it happened and how these people were and indeed how Lauda still is. Fuck the only deviation from fact I noticed was the first wide angle shot at the Nurburgring race was of the new circuit not the old one, I have to get that finicky. The racing scenes are kinetic and superbly edited like the ghost of Tony Scott was nearby and as an F1 fan I would likely have derived more enjoyment and possible drooling then a regular film goer but anybody (yoshue im looking at you) who is expecting regular ron howard regulation blandness will be caught flat footed.

The meat of the story is Hunt and Lauda and this film captures them superbly. I'm not a fan of the oscars nominating people for portrayals of real life figures but since they do they would be remiss to not nominate Bhuhl, he is an amazing Lauda mimic. Indeed the story starts out Hunt centred but after the Nurburgring crash it pivots to Lauda and a regular film goer will realise this isn't a hero villain story but just two men at the top of their game searching for something different.

The 70s setting is authentically realised and the little coda at the end closing with a shot of the real life Niki Lauda sums it up well. Hunt won his title and then faded away never growing up and dying young while Lauda remained the balanced centre of logical reasoning. I honestly never expected this film to be good. even when the reviews came in positive I assumed rather snobbishly it was just F1 virgins that enjoyed it and would not notice the cracks. But dang if I wasn't proven wrong, and I am pretty glad of that.

What did you think of the scene in which Hunt punches the reporter after the post-accident conference with Lauda? Pushing it too much?

Well they had to kerb the fact Lauda and Hunt were on friendlier terms in real life and I figured this was a substitute for showing Hunt did care. The question the journalist asked would have fit in with the fatalist attitude of the time. Honestly I think the scene with Lauda dismissing Helmuth Koinigg being decapitated was more jarring, I have no idea if that was his reaction but it felt more like the response from a driver in the last 50s early 60s.

I found the film pretty damn great myself and I am not a big F1-fan.It is just a terrifically-made drama, which at the very least deserves Oscar noms for Brühl and for its cinematography.

I think, in the end, this is more Brühl's film/Lauda's story than Hunt's.

What is the marketing the USA selling it as? And Lec yes I agree nominations in those 2 categories would be fair.

Oh dear that's quite a bad move. I mean I figured its ceiling with awesome marketing in the USA was like 30M (im not a BO guy) and it was going to live and die on overseas but still very dumb.

Formula One generates more dama on and off track than just about any sport. A shame if the US marketing is so simplistic.

Good to see it gets you seal of approval Gulli. I'm hoping to enjoy it as a film fan first and F1 fan second. Won't be too picky.

Rush

I like Formula 1 and so this interested me from when I saw the first trailer. It's a pretty terrific film of a time in sporting history that I was not aware of. Chris Hemsworth was fantastic - he can REALLY act. Bruhl was, I suppose, also good, but his character was far too cold for me to give a shit about. For people saying that Bruhl is the star, I disagree....I think Hunt and Lauda have equal screen time. This is a story of the rivalry, not just of one of the racers. The movie could have had better music, but it did a good enough job anyway. I had a great time at the cinema watching this. The build up and respect/banter between each other is greatly shown here, and the racing scenes are awesome. This is probably the second best racing movie ever behind Driven.

B+

Great! Did you see it in the UK?

Yep. I went to my city's art house cinema to watch it too, so it added to the experience for me as I believe Rush is more of a small film than a multiplex style blockbuster.

It's a matter of perception who's the lead here (Lauda's is definitely the better story), you could of course argue that both are. But there is no way to argue that Brühl is supporting.

I'm going to see it in a local art house theatre as well. Good call!

I never said he was. They are both leads in the same way that Stiller and Wilson are the two leads in Starsky & Hutch. Personally, I prefer Hunt's story. I thought that Lauda was a complete tosser. But, you have to understand that watching this as a Brit and watching this as a German will make us root for our native brother. I felt that there was certainly a sense in the cinema that they all loved it when Hunt won. Hunt certainly had the better story for me. It was a real journey for him in respecting your rival (the news reporter scene is where it becomes especially obvious).

Fair enough.

If I get to talk to Hemsworth next weekend, anything you'd like to know from him?

Umm, not really about Rush or his character, but I'd be interested in which way he wants his career to go and what sort of movies he prefers making, whether it's smaller, mature, serious films like Rush or dumb-ass, less respectable fare like Red Dawn and Thor 2. I believe he definitely has a spark for the real acting and that could be improved upon in a few years and who knows, he could become a respected actor in the same way that Christian Bale or Joaquin Phoenix is, but I'd like to know how he sees it.

Everything about the actual production was top-notch, but I have a few problems with the script. In particular, Hunt's marriage was so superficial that none of the scenes involving it seemed to have any kind of thematic resonance. It also never seems to really settle on either Hunt or Lauda as the real emotional anchor of the story. Lauda's narration bookends the film, and he has more of a character arc, so ultimately he seems to be the central character, but the entire film doesn't seem to completely fit within that framework.

On a personal note, I enjoyed that much of the film was in German, and I'm also super stoked to see the German dub, since Bruehl dubs his own role.

B+

(The second time I saw the movie it was almost impossible to hear what was being said during the race scenes--including the opening narration. This was obviously more due to the individual theatre acoustics than the sound mixing but hopefully this doesn't surface as a widespread problem)

Much of the film was in German?

It wasn't at all. There were a few lines in German and 95% of the film is in English.

I was going to go with a B originally, but I loved the final thirty minutes documenting the final race. I was on the edge of my seat and the whole thing was so well-done from a filmmaking perspective. This is just a very well-made movie overall - the direction, cinematography, score and performances are all fantastic. I didn't find the overall subject matter particularly interesting, but fans of the sport I believe will absolutely LOVE this. B+

On a technical level this movie is so fantastic. The sound and cinematography are amazing and it's just such a well-made film. It's very easy to admire the craftsmanship that went into making the film. That being said I wasn't as invested in the story as I would have liked. Found myself a bit bored with it at times. It's not an unpleasant watch due to the superb production values and I'd say it's worth seeing for that alone, but I did think I'd enjoy the film more. The race scenes are terrific and performances are really good. I'd say it's deserving of many technical nominations come Oscar time. I wouldn't even be upset by a Best Director nomination for Ron Howard.

7/10 ( B )

BJs Grade

A

I tend to like racing movies and I really like this one, grade might change with a 2nd viewing, but for now its my favorite film of the year.

Ron Howard's Rush lives up to its title, with exhilarating racing sequences and crisp, ear-popping sound design. It also has effective writing in detailing the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, played by Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl in excellent performances. I'm not sure it's all that deep or profound, really, but it's entertaining and expertly made. B+

RUSH

I skipped a screening of this because I really wasn't interested in the background of Formula 1 or a Ron Howard picture either and I wish I hadn't. It would have been nice to see this with a audience. I really loved this film. I got into the driving sequences and the competition leading up to the finale. It certainly helped that I had no idea who either driver was or who was gonna win what in the end. That made it better I think. I thought Hemsworth and Bruhl were great in their roles. I like Bruhl's narration and performance as Lauda. Fantastic. The wives were pretty bleh. I think the lady who played Lauda's wife was interesting in the beginning but she just had one look on her face after their first meetup. Olivia Wilde didn't get much to do, very bit partish. Overall, I liked the story, acting, driving sequences very much. It was much more entertaining than I expected.

Grade - A

Rush is an entertaining film, but it tends to shy away from venturing too far beneath its fast and sexy surfaces, which restrains it from becoming a great film. The script is by Peter Morgan, who, with films such as Frost/Nixon, The Last King of Scotland, and The Queen, has shown an ability to investigate culture, history, and the outsize personalities which create and define both by focusing on specific moments in extraordinary lives, such as the stoic Queen Elizabeth's crisis of image in the aftermath of the abrupt death of former daughter-in-law Diana as contrasted with ambitious, charming politician Tony Blair's masterful response to the tragedy. He tries to do the same here, zeroing in on two drivers (a raucous English cad and a curt, inward Austrian tactician) as they engage in a fierce rivalry during a single season of Formula One racing in the 1970s, culminating with one becoming the world champion.

The dynamic is clear and made even more so by at times on-the-nose dialogue, with one driver insisting he will not race if he estimates the chance of death or serious injury is above 20 percent while the other describes the almost erotic charge near-death experiences give him. The live-large-or-live-wise divide is fine and interesting, but never too interesting, and the most biographical elements of the film, such as the obligatory scenes of domestic drama, are too rote to move. If Morgan is not in top form, though, Ron Howard, director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle (Antichrist, Trance), and the other crew members are, and they create an atmospheric, roaring, super-saturated spectacle with coherent action sequences and a great deal of convincing period detail. The two stars also fare very well: Chris Hemsworth is given a rewarding chance to complicate his natural golden-god presence with a few new shades of lusty volatility, while Daniel Brühl captures the detail oriented and thorny exterior of the man he is playing, the exterior which inspires others to call him colorful names, without ever losing sight of the character's core decency nor hold of the sympathy of the audience.

B