It's a Rush -- see it!

I finally saw Ron Howard's Rush.  It is my favorite movie of the year (admittedly, it may not be "the best").

Disclosure: in 1976, when the movie's central action takes place, I was big into cars, had a subscription to Road & Track (this was before every sports event was televised somewhere live), and I followed Grand Prix racing as best I could from the American Midwest.  The Hunt-Lauda rivalry that is the movie I followed like some followed Ali & Frazier.

Sports movies are often pretty good, given that sports provides that story arc with the tension needed to drive a good story.  With car racing, you add the visual element -- it doesn't take a lot of special effects to have you into the event (we all drive, but none of us THAT fast).

Then you add two complementary characters like James Hunt, the brash, playboy Brit, and Niki Lauda, the reclusive, mechanical Austrian, and you've got a great mix.

Add Lauda's tragic accident and the great talent the two possessed, and you've got quite a film.

You are caught up in their rivalry; you are caught up in Lauda's recovery; you root for Hunt's success, because he's so forthright & charming (does he really say to the press that he's pulled quite something being able to divorce without paying a thing because his wife has taken up with Richard Burton?  does he really beat in a reporter's face after a heartless question about Lauda's marriage and command, "ask your wife what she thinks of your face now"?)...and you don't know who should win.

Howard does an excellent job of portraying them both, with screenwriter Peter Morgan's script using voice-over narration from them both to understand them both and their mild animosity for each other.

The racing shots are great.

Thor (Chris Helmsforth) is good as Hunt;  Daniel Bruhl is excellent as the up-tight Lauda.

It's taut, exciting, and thrilling.  See it.  It may not win an Academy Award nomination (it's probably not high-brow enough), but it's quality film-making: an intense story, well acted, written, and beautifully shot.