"Days of Thunder," but without the stupid.

Rating: 6/10 (16 September 2019)

Having seen the rating this film has on this site, I was expecting something much more compelling.
For starters, the film takes a few liberties with historical accuracy - such as shifting the races on the F1 calendar - but most of all, it fails to capture the shade of the period. Hunt and Lauda are starting their careers in the immediate aftermath of the Sixties, a period characterised by an increasing gloom. There were fuel crises, there was terrorism, economies on the downturn and people trodden over by capitalism, side by side with the events in the film (1973-76). Meanwhile, this film makes the period seem as rosy as the two main characters, essentially spoiled rich kids driven by their personal manias. Even in its treatment of the drama of F1 - the death of numerous F1 drivers during the 70s, before the sport was regulated into an entertainment behemoth by Ecclestone & co. - the film offers only the occasional piece of gore, making it really hard to feel for the bunch of a-holes sitting in those tiny metal boxes. The sharp editing and vivid colours turn this into a comic book fairytale, largely evading the underlying historical shifts that can well be personified by Hunt and Lauda.
All of this wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't for the fact that this film purports to represent a historically-accurate image of two actual historical personages during an actual historic moment in F1's history. To even out the narrative burden between Hunt and Lauda, "Rush" makes Lauda the narrator while focusing the attention primarily on Hunt. There's reason to that, since Lauda is being presented as a quiet perfectionist, while Hunt is the loud, romantic hero of the kind they don't make anymore. This might make it easier for the viewer to recognise the Austrian as someone who's looking out to the future, while Hunt is locked in the past. At the same time, though, the film actively sells Hunt as the hero we can identify with or look up to, selling his childishness and shallowness as evidence of some inner depths, while the thoroughly two-dimensional Lauda is afforded just enough screen time to deliver some of the blandest and most obvious lines about the heroism of an F1 driver. Hunt may win the title in the end, while Lauda will get it back the following year, but in this film, no one really wins.
As for acting, this is definitely Hemsworth's film. For all his undeniable talent, Bruhl is too quietly competent to steal the limelight. There's a whole list of decent cameos here, but they're essentially edited beyond recognition, and in some cases, so firmly circumscribed by the bland writing that they are limited to a gallery of nice faces.
If your choice is between "Days of Thunder" and this, by all means, go for "Rush."