Rush
Director: Ron Howard
Year Released: 2013
Rating: 3.0
Intriguing - if a tad predictable - depiction of the rivalry between two very different Formula 1 drivers, James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) of England and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) of Austria, and their very eventful 1976 racing season which involved Hunt winning the world championship and Lauda getting severely injured in a crash. Howard, along with screenwriter Peter Morgan, do a fine job contrasting the two very different ideologies of the principal players - Lauda's emphasis on minimizing risk and his technical prowess versus Hunt's 'live fast/die young' mentality - and giving both viewpoints their due (though privileging Lauda's approach, since he's still very much alive). The females in this are either treated as sexual accessories (Natalie Dormer's nurse) or relegated to the background (Alexandra Maria Lara's dutiful wife), but that makes sense in what amounts to a major pissing contest between two very large male egos.
