Propelled By Craft

Rating: 9/10 (21 September 2013)

Rush is a biopic about the rivalry between F1 racers, James Hunt and Niki Lauda. Their story is pretty much known as remarkable and their personal character can also be worth looking. By looking at the filmmaking, you'll see that it's an ambitious piece of cinema full of style and fascination beneath the lives of these people. However, it picks some mainstream choices in its character study. Well, there's no denying that you'll call Rush a very well made film. The direction propels the storytelling, making it wholly entertaining, while the performances made the less faster scenes a lot gripping. I think those merits alone would already make Rush a great movie.
The film contrasts between Hunt and Lauda by their traits and goals. Hunt is all brawn while Lauda is all wits. Though they both have the same obsession of winning mostly by their pride; one seeks for more fame and excessive pleasure, while the other tries to prove that he still got integrity even in the life as a star. The interesting part here is how these obsessions make them rise and fall, but that is the only thing where the character development leads to. The rest depends on the compelling performances filling the personalities and fortitude of these people. Chris Hemsworth did what he does best as a charming arrogant man, and it seems that's perfect enough for James Hunt. Daniel Brühl immediately steals the show, outweighing every acting around here. He's simply emotionally gripping as Niki Lauda.
Above all, it's all about the craft. Ron Howard brings plenty of fortitude and thrill through the dangerous racetracks, while makes the rest so terribly engrossing. The film is also magnificent in production with all the props, cars, cinematography, and stuff. But the real deal here is the style, showing consistent speed in its editing through the camera angles. These skills simply made the overall film thoroughly entertaining.
Rush can be worth rooting for in the end, it's a very well told story that embraces the speed of the cars without repelling anything, but when it slows down, it's still an interesting movie for exploring the characters, if only that part was less conventional, it would have been a lot stronger. But the strength is already kept strong by the filmmakers behind this film. It's just a marvelous experience that many would definitely find it engaging. It's easy enough to recommend it.