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#283 - Rush
Ron Howard, 2013
Based on a true story about the rivalry between two Formula One drivers - England's James Hunt and Germany's Niki Lauda.
Rush doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel (no pun intended) when it comes to a biopic rooted in a famous rivalry. Credit has to go to the film for at least managing to make Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Lauda (Daniel Brühl) more or less equal as far as protagonists go without one or the other being explicitly more villainous than the other. Both characters embody perfectly opposed personalities - Hunt is a wealthy hedonist who treats racing as yet another vice he can indulge, while Lauda has a dedication to the sport that causes him to buck his own stuffy upper-class background in order to pursue and improve it. Though Hemsworth does bring a certain amount of cocky charm to a seemingly unsympathetic character, it is Brühl who stands out as the film's best performer as he admittedly plays into a tiresome archetype as a socially awkward but determined intellectual (to the point where this movie could just as easily be called A Beautiful Drive). He more or less carries the movie, making sure to sell the relationship he develops with his wife (Alexandra Maria Lara), which makes for a good contrast to Hunt's ultimately pointless marriage to a supermodel (Olivia Wilde - surprises me that she gets top billing despite only having about five minutes of screen-time and almost no relevance to the plot beyond being an embodiment of Hunt's own flaws).
Of course, for a film about Formula One racing the film does feature its fair share of high-speed driving, though it never feels as exciting as it should (save of course for one shocking development that I, not having known the true story, was genuinely surprised by). From there, the film gains a bit more complexity - especially in regards to the relationship between Hunt and Lauda and its effect on both men's psyches and mutual livelihood - but it doesn't quite feel like enough to make this film truly transcend its biopic trappings. Rush is definitely held together by a strong performance by Brühl and a garish tone that accentuates the film's focus on racing in the Seventies, but there's not much more to it beyond that.
Ron Howard, 2013
Based on a true story about the rivalry between two Formula One drivers - England's James Hunt and Germany's Niki Lauda.
Rush doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel (no pun intended) when it comes to a biopic rooted in a famous rivalry. Credit has to go to the film for at least managing to make Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Lauda (Daniel Brühl) more or less equal as far as protagonists go without one or the other being explicitly more villainous than the other. Both characters embody perfectly opposed personalities - Hunt is a wealthy hedonist who treats racing as yet another vice he can indulge, while Lauda has a dedication to the sport that causes him to buck his own stuffy upper-class background in order to pursue and improve it. Though Hemsworth does bring a certain amount of cocky charm to a seemingly unsympathetic character, it is Brühl who stands out as the film's best performer as he admittedly plays into a tiresome archetype as a socially awkward but determined intellectual (to the point where this movie could just as easily be called A Beautiful Drive). He more or less carries the movie, making sure to sell the relationship he develops with his wife (Alexandra Maria Lara), which makes for a good contrast to Hunt's ultimately pointless marriage to a supermodel (Olivia Wilde - surprises me that she gets top billing despite only having about five minutes of screen-time and almost no relevance to the plot beyond being an embodiment of Hunt's own flaws).
Of course, for a film about Formula One racing the film does feature its fair share of high-speed driving, though it never feels as exciting as it should (save of course for one shocking development that I, not having known the true story, was genuinely surprised by). From there, the film gains a bit more complexity - especially in regards to the relationship between Hunt and Lauda and its effect on both men's psyches and mutual livelihood - but it doesn't quite feel like enough to make this film truly transcend its biopic trappings. Rush is definitely held together by a strong performance by Brühl and a garish tone that accentuates the film's focus on racing in the Seventies, but there's not much more to it beyond that.