Rush
Screening Dates:
Tue 12 November 6:15pm
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Daniel Brühl, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde
Frost/Nixon’s director and scriptwriter, Ron Howard and Peter Morgan, now team up for a very different battle of wills: the intense rivalry between legendary Formula One drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda.
Hunt was very much the charismatic English playboy, Lauda the no-nonsense, straight-ahead Austrian. When leading the 1976 World Championship, Lauda suffered massive burns in a horrific crash at the German Grand Prix, thereby apparently handing Hunt the series. But despite his injuries, Lauda made an extraordinary comeback to finish fourth two races later at Monza, and the Championship was decided just three nail-biting events later in Japan.
The stunning racing footage alone is worth the ticket price, and Hemsworth (Avengers Assemble) and Brühl (Eva) entertainingly and convincingly portray the two leads’ diametrically opposed lifestyles and characters.
Critic: Anthony Lane
Date: 2013-09-30
Publication: New Yorker
Quote: If you don't already know the story of that season, lucky you; even now, it exerts a ridiculous thrill.
Critic: Dana Stevens
Date: 2013-09-29
Publication: Slate
Quote: Rush is an outsize Hollywood spectacle about two outsize personalities in conflict, a sleekly assembled thrill machine that makes up in excitement for what it lacks in nuance.
Critic: Christopher Orr
Date: 2013-09-27
Publication: The Atlantic
Quote: Rush is not a particularly deep film. But more importantly, it is not a film that mistakes itself for deep. And this self-knowledge makes Rush, in some ways, a wiser film than many that aspire to loftier goals.
Critic: Lisa Kennedy
Date: 2013-09-27
Publication: Denver Post
Quote: This is a deeply adult drama, not least because Howard shows the costs of being so driven in a sport in which a driver is encased in a potential fireball.
Critic: Tom Long
Date: 2013-09-27
Publication: Detroit News
Quote: One thing's for sure with this film: You carry the "Rush" out of the theater.
Critic: Steven Rea
Date: 2013-09-27
Publication: Philadelphia Inquirer
Quote: Rush has an elemental simplicity about it. Two men in competition, driven (so to speak) to win. They are enemies. But they need each other, too, and as they roll around at 170 m.p.h., they come to understand why.
Critic: Rene Rodriguez
Date: 2013-09-27
Publication: Miami Herald
Quote: "Rush" is the kind of Hollywood studio production that has sadly become all too rare - a smart, exciting, R-rated entertainment for grown-ups that quickens your pulse and puts on a great show.
Critic: Richard Roeper
Date: 2013-09-26
Publication: Richard Roeper.com
Quote: 'Rush' ranks among the best movies about auto racing ever made, featuring two great performances from the leads.
Critic: Peter Howell
Date: 2013-09-26
Publication: Toronto Star
Quote: This is no mere thrill ride by two real-life rival speedsters, although it is certainly that. The film also provides a sobering look at what it takes to be a true champion.
Critic: Colin Covert
Date: 2013-09-26
Publication: Minneapolis Star Tribune
Quote: The on-track action is blistering, the filmmaking sure-footed (even as cars fishtail into catastrophic crashes), the characters bigger than life.
Critic: Peter Hartlaub
Date: 2013-09-26
Publication: San Francisco Chronicle
Quote: Howard proves that directing action is one of his underrated strengths. The racing scenes are dynamic and easy to follow, with a sheen that brings the 1970s into sharp relief.
Critic: Drew Hunt
Date: 2013-09-26
Publication: Chicago Reader
Quote: This is entertaining enough, but ultimately it's spuriously triumphant Oscar-baiting fluff.
Critic: Bill Goodykoontz
Date: 2013-09-26
Publication: Arizona Republic
Quote: Hemsworth and Bruhl are outstanding. Their story is what drives the movie, two men different in every way except for their unyielding desire to win.
Critic: Michael Phillips
Date: 2013-09-26
Publication: Chicago Tribune
Quote: "Rush," while never dull, rarely feels dramatically alive; it hits its marks dutifully and darts onward.
Critic: Soren Anderson
Date: 2013-09-26
Publication: Seattle Times
Quote: Mostly a lot of noise and nonsense, a garish enterprise that almost - though not quite - trivializes the tale.
Critic: Ty Burr
Date: 2013-09-25
Publication: Boston Globe
Quote: In a way, "Rush" is a philosophical drama about the varying ways men move through the world. It's just a really fast drama.
Critic: Tony Hicks
Date: 2013-09-24
Publication: San Jose Mercury News
Quote: You spend at least half the movie on the edge of your seat, and not just because you're rooting for someone to win or lose.
Critic: James Berardinelli
Date: 2013-09-24
Publication: ReelViews
Quote: Rush not only effectively presents a balanced view of the rivalry between two race car drivers but manages the difficult task of taking Formula One racing, an inherently non-cinematic sport, and translating it to the screen.
Critic: Peter Rainer
Date: 2013-09-20
Publication: Christian Science Monitor
Quote: Rush isn't bad, exactly, but it's like a standard-issue male action programmer that somehow crept in from an earlier era.
Critic: Joel Arnold
Date: 2013-09-20
Publication: NPR
Quote: Howard chooses a few moments to let the film breathe, but for the most part - aside from a clunky first-person narration that book-ends the film - he propels Rush from scene to scene with a momentum that never lets the thing drag.
