I saw Rush this afternoon, and it was great - its appeal did not depend on a naked Chris Hemsworth belly-flopping into bed, but the movie as a whole was worthy of that visual. A much more serious and weighty film than the advertising would lead one to believe. And Daniel Brühl's performance may be the best I've seen at the movies all year - I hope it helps his career take off in Hollywood. (I still remember when he seemed to be the lead in every indie movie that came out in the early 2000s, but that didn't seem to translate into mainstream recognition.)

Bruhl was amazing. Lauda was amazing. Sure, rest your marketing on Thor--that's the is the sensible decision, and I have no sympathy for anyone that feels baited and switched upon by seeing it's the story of rivals, not Tony Stark without science inclinations.

They also do a good job of making it a story not too much about racing for people not interesting--it's about people and rivalry, and you can almost excise the sports and look at it as a story about people. Not a particular Ron Howard fan, but I enjoyed it very much.

Open Water gave me the shivers about being two hours of lead stone in the stomach helplessness in the face of an uncaring universe, and that the only way out is some fluke, or some action I can't predict at all, hence the lead stone.

And I don't know what about Open Water people are hoping to avoid, so I'm afraid I can't be any help there either.

Open Water gave me the shivers about being two hours of lead stone in the stomach helplessness in the face of an uncaring universe, and that the only way out is some fluke, or some action I can't predict at all, hence the lead stone.

This. 100%.

helplessness in the face of an uncaring universe, and that the only way out is some fluke

I can safely say that Gravity is not this. It's like a more extreme worst-case-scenario Apollo 13.

helplessness in the face of an uncaring universe, and that the only way out is some fluke

Movies like that don't bother me; that's how I feel all the time anyway.

I don't usually feel like I'm on the brink of death far away from everything familiar, so I find movies like that an escalation from my normal state.

Bruhl was amazing. Lauda was amazing. Sure, rest your marketing on Thor--that's the is the sensible decision

Except I do think I read something about them putting Bruhl up for Supporting Actor awards.

Except I do think I read something about them putting Bruhl up for Supporting Actor awards.

I was about to say something about how that doesn't conflict when I realised "supporting" and then...hmmph. I'm sure Chris walked away with the lion's share of the money and press and stuff, but...hmmph, fine. I even think Bruhl might have had more lines in the end.

There's a Green Wing quasi-reunion in this, for people who liked that. Amused me.

Here, in a piece that's mostly about Enough Said:

There's also noise about a campaign for Daniel Brühl, the magnetic German actor who gives a fine, biting performance as the testy Austrian racer Niki Lauda. Although Rush is about the competition between the by-the-book, Ivan Lendl–ish Lauda and the brash, freewheeling asshole live wire James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth, slimming down and stepping up from Thor), and the movie gives their personal lives equal attention, Brühl is for some reason being talked about as a Best Supporting Actor candidate. This is one of those category-fraud moments so brazen that you wonder if the people who made Rush even want the story they have invested so much time and effort in telling to be perceived accurately. Is the movie, as it appears to be, about two intense alpha dudes who are driven to achieve victory in profoundly different ways? Or is it, as the Oscar campaign would suggest, about one big, tall, handsome blond guy and his aspirations and feelings, and only secondarily about this other guy who keeps getting in his way and whose aspirations and feelings the camera and the script sure seem to spend a lot of unwarranted time with? If Lauda is truly meant to be a supporting character in Rush, then everybody involved did a really bad job making the movie. They didn't, and he's not: Instead, Brühl is every Academy Award campaigner's worst nightmare — a super-talented, little-known co-lead with an umlaut in his last name.

I have to admit, it took me a while to realise that they'd submit Chris for an Oscar too. But just about everyone gets submitted. I just...he was fine. But nothing amazing.