Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2014

Ron Howard’s crowd-pleasing auto-racer focuses on the famous 1976 Formula One rivalry between the handsome Brit playboy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth, good) and the methodical, antisocial Austrian tactician Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl, better). The racing scenes are top-gear, but the appeal for adults in this furiously fast flick is in the warts-and-all dual character study (neither man is favored), and on what happens off the track. I don’t mean their wives and loves (a tad dull) but in the symbiosis that made these two complete opposites tick, and win. Works both as drama and as spectacle. (123 min)