On Netflix: Rush (2013)

I used to have a birthday tradition of playing hooky from work and treating myself to a midday trip to the movie theater. Back in 2013, my birthday movie was this slick, high-speed classic. I was not disappointed then, nor was I disappointed when I revisited Rush this past weekend for the first time in 10 years. 

Good car racing movies seem to be few and far between nowadays. Movies about fast cars have moved off the race track and onto the streets, as action films, more often than not. In fact, I can't remember another classic car racing film in my lifetime other than Days of Thunder (1990), which I also saw in the theater. 

Starring Chris Hemsworth (whom you probably know) and Daniel Bruhl (whom you probably don't), Rush takes place in the 1970s and centers on the real-life rivalry between two Formula 1 drivers, the British James Hunt and the Austrian Niki Lauda. Hunt (Hemsworth) is the swaggering, cocky, boozing and womanizing daredevil who sees every race as a dance with death, while Lauda (Bruhl) is his complete opposite: methodical, cold-blooded, and disciplined, waking up early to walk the race track in the morning while Hunt is just getting home from the bars. The action of the film takes place over the course of the 1975 and 1976 racing seasons, as Hunt and Lauda goad and provoke each other -- and eventually become something close to friends -- all the while battling each other for the Formula 1 championship. 

Car racing is always a circus of noise, bright colors, and high-speed machines. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire) uses some kind of "acid-trip" color filters to make this film a shimmering masterpiece that comes as close to popping off the screen as is technologically possible. Nowhere is this more apparent than during the Brazilian Grand Prix sequence. As samba music blasts, mechanics pour ice on their cars tires, while the sweltering crowd gets hosed down with water too keep them cool, all the while half-naked carnival dancers make their way up and down pit road...and that's before the race even starts. That's not even to mention the speeding, 1970s Formula 1 cars, the colorful, stories-high track billboards for long-forgotten brands, and the 1970s, Euro-style clothes. Come to think of it, 70s Europe deserves a credit in this film, as well. 

As for what happens off the track, there is no shortage of eye-candy in this film, whatever you're into whether that happens to be hot women or Chris Hemsworth. The very first time we meet James Hunt, he manages to bed his nurse -- played by Natalie Dormer -- in approximately five minutes, while going on to marry the model Suzy Miller (Olivia Wilde) -- and have a string of affairs in between. Less graphic and less exciting are the female forays of Lauda, but suffice it to say that sexual tension (released and otherwise) is as much a part of this film as fast cars. 

And still...amidst the cars, and the colors, and the noise, and the multi-angle, high-speed sex, there manages to be an actual plot and character development and even -- yes -- a moment at the end of the film that hits you right in the feels as an aging Niki Lauda reflects on the differences between himself and Hunt and what happens to their friendship as the years go by. 

In the end, Rush does manage to be more than just a fast-paced, 70s race car movie. It is a story about friendship, risk, and what personal and emotional damage lies in the wake of the maddening will to succeed...that just happens to be wrapped in a visually stimulating carnival of lights, colors, engines, swaggering Euro race car dudes and sexy women. 

Rush is now available for streaming on Netflix.