Review: Rush

So, Rush. And if I were restricted to a line for this one, I’d make a corny joke about how it doesn’t half give you a rush too. Luckily I’m not, because that’s a silly joke. Regardless this is a fine film!

Directed by Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind) and starring Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds), Rush is the story of how the bitter Formula 1 rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda played out in the 1970s (played by Hemsworth and Bruhl respectively). Starting from both of their early racing days, the story tracks their respective rises to the big stage of Formula 1, and paints the picture of two men moving parallel to each other and yet in completely different ways.

A quick motor racing history lesson. Hunt was the playboy – never without a girl (or three) on his arm (or in his bed) and never without a drink in his hand. He drove in the same way – he was a risk taker, gambling at each corner with his life and the lives of others. And Lauda resented him for this. The pragmatic Austrian was a man of science and numbers, he knew how to eke every last percentile of performance from his car. He also lived his life accordingly – no parties, a simple quiet relationship with his wife, no fuss at all.

It would be fair to describe Ron Howard as a historian with the mind of a showman. The man is a genius with biopics such as this, and yes he has been accused in the past of slightly ratcheting up the tension in certain situations (notably Apollo 13), but in Rush he was very true to the events as they unfolded. The beauty of the story is that he didn’t need to add any Hollywood razzle-dazzle to it – they truly were risking their lives on a weekly basis, and explosions and crashes were par for the course. Through clever camera work Howard shows us what the drivers would be seeing as they approached corners at 150mph, and I for one jumped out of my seat more than once as multiple flaming chassis spun out of control.

Hemsworth is a good Hunt. He has the cheeky smiles and flirtacious winks in his locker for that side of the character, but for me he lacked a little depth. Perhaps more torment as his marriage broke down could have been portrayed – Hunt the man cared a lot for the people around him and the people he raced with. Bruhl however delivers a pitch perfect performance as the measured Lauda – he masters the full range, and manages to do that most difficult thing of acting in a measured and quiet way while still acting. Sometimes it is more difficult to say nothing on screen.

Not one for the faint hearted I must add, but a very fine film indeed. And for Formula 1 fans like me, well, it was a bit of a geekfest!

Review: Blue Jasmine

Woody Allen returns home from his European tour with Blue Jasmine, an American story of one woman’s struggle to cope with the devastating after-effect of the collapse of her marriage and the discovery of her now deceased husband’s fraudulent activities. Played by Cate Blanchett, New York social butterfly Jasmine dumps herself on her sister’s doorstep in San Francisco and prepares to start her new life afresh. Easier said than done.

This is a very anxiety provoking film, but I think this is necessary to explore the entire range of Jasmine’s emotions as she comes to the realisation that life is not easy and happiness cannot be bought. We are constantly worrying and fretting – even when she herself is not worrying on screen during the frequent flashbacks, we see her in her former life and almost cry out to stop her from making those errors in judgement. Allen perfectly builds this tension, both within the character and the audience, without ever letting it boil over into raw screaming anger.

Blanchett herself is unerringly good in this film. The script, as always beautifully written by Allen, gives her the full range to work with – from chatting and tittering at social functions in New York to screaming and sweating in downtown San Francisco. As she went from one nervous breakdown to another you almost wanted to reach out and wipe her brow for her as she manically ranted away. This is perhaps one of the best-performed examples of an anxiety disorder I have seen in a film – Blanchett constantly makes us feel the character is on the edge and could go either way at any moment.

One of the lovely things that Woody Allen does is allow his actors to act by his use of the camera. He goes for extremely long single takes, sometimes even allowing characters to walk off and walk onto screen as they carry on talking. By using these long camera shots he allows the actors to explore every sentence and idea and lets them flow through each other – at times it almost felt like Blue Jasmine would be suited to being performed as a play.

A minor point against for me is Allen’s music in this film. It may just be me but the old saxophones in the background do tend to grind a little after a while – I perhaps would want something a bit more contemporary, for example as we explore downtown San Francisco with Jasmine and her sister.

Alec Baldwin plays the unlikeable Hal very well, Sally Hawkins is superb as the sister Ginger and Louie CK, one of my favourite comedians, has a brilliant role as a potential love interest. Blanchett steals every scene she enters though. She then steals it again, from herself, just because she can.

This is not the easiest film in the world to watch, however I do recommend you watch it. Woody Allen has impressed yet again.

Review: Metro Manila

You may not have heard of Metro Manila - I went to the Little in Bath which shows 'under the radar' films such as this. I say under the radar - it did recently win an Audience Award for World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival, so it has been recognised within the industry, and I could definitely see why it has been awarded this accolade.

Directed and written by Sean Ellis, an Oscar nominee himself, and starring Jake Macapagal, Althea Vega, and John Arcilla, Metro Manila is the story (given in native Filipino and subtitled) of Oscar and Mai Ramirez (played by Macapagal and Vega respectively) and their two daughters. They are farmers who can no longer afford to work in the paddy fields of the Philippines and so decide to up sticks and move to Manila in search of work.

Having never been myself I cannot really judge whether or not the representation of it is right or wrong, however Ellis' view is stereotypically bustling and portrayed as a hectic and confusing buzz. The hazy sweeping views of Manila at dusk with car headlights and brakelights are clichéd but do add to the rich texture of the imagery. While we are on the subject of cinematography I personally would like some of the close ups to be a little less tight (so a wider angle with the face taking up less of the screen) but hey, I'm kooky like that.

The main criticism I would have is that the story is slightly predictable. When the twist comes and a certain character shows their true colours, it is more a confirmation of what we suspected than a sudden upheaval of everything we once knew. So the story itself is nothing special. The way that story is told though is well crafted. We see from the point of view of Oscar (and to a lesser extent Mai - perhaps her story could have been better developed) this new world that has been thrust upon them all and we see how they try to cope with it.

Macapagal gives a very strong performance in the lead, portraying the honest soul of Oscar. He shows us the sense of desperation that his character holds for his family's wellbeing, yet also portrays well the character's sense of right and wrong. For me Vega's Mai is a bit bland, a bit vanilla rather than Manila (come on, you knew I was going to make some kind of pun with that) and I'd like to see her more passionate about their situation. John Arcilla is brilliant as Oscar's best friend and colleague Ong, becoming the central pillar around which the film is built.

So, a good film overall! Not spectacular, but a compelling story and a few cloudy eyed moments. Seek it out if you can - you may need to try local independent cinemas in your area, but hey, that's no bad thing now is it! Until next time.