Ron Howard’s latest, Rush, would make a terrific double bill with the outstanding 2010 documentary Senna. Both feature true stories about famous Formula One feuds,  heated drivers meetings, the perils of racing in the rain and so forth. But both are also universally relatable even if one has absolutely no interest in racing whatsoever.

Like Senna, Rush is a hugely dramatic tale of ambition, obsession and loss. It chronicles the mid-1970s rivalry between British James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), as they battled it out for the 1976 Formula One Championship. Despite some intensely exciting racing sequences, this is at heart a character study of two similar yet different men; both from wealthy backgrounds, both hugely arrogant and determined to win, but massively different in their motivations, worldviews and personalities.

On the surface, Hunt seems more likeable – a handsome, womanising, crowd-pleaser who exudes genuine charisma. Yet as the film progresses his hedonistic lifestyle proves destructive to those around him. Lauda by contrast is methodical, analytical and socially awkward. He has ruthless business sensibilities and seems to lack a sense of humour, in spite of sharing Hunt’s ability to handle the press well. At one point he even tells his wife that happiness “is the enemy” because it means he loses focus.

One scene where Lauda and Hunt are together at the race track visually demonstrates the massive difference in how the public sees them, with Hunt accosted by loads of (mostly) female fans, and Lauda slipping past unnoticed. Yet ultimately the characteristics that make Lauda seem a bit square are shown to be positive, especially his disarming honesty and ability to forgive.

Both Hemsworth and Bruhl contribute excellent performances, the cinematography (by Anthony Dod Mantle) has the chroma saturated look and feel of a 70s movie, and Ron Howard – a massively underrated director – holds the piece together with considerable flair. Perhaps Rush isn’t anything new or revolutionary, but it does what it does really well. It even has one or two quite profound observations to make about the reckless idolatry of a win-at-all-costs mentality, along with some wise thoughts on how having an enemy can actually be a positive thing.

I should probably add warnings for swearing, sexual content and one or two slightly gruesome injury moments, but nothing seemed gratuitous. All things considered Rush is a very fine piece of work. Try and see it in the cinema if you can. Incidentally, if you haven’t seen Senna yet, put that at the top of your must-see list too.

Richard Curtis’s latest film About Time only pretends to be a time travelling rom-com. Really it’s a touching drama about fathers and son. Yes, it’s shamelessly sentimental, manipulative, and no doubt falls apart if examined too closely, but overall it works.

The plot concerns Tim (Domhnall Gleeson), who is told by his father (Bill Nighy) that the male side of his family have the ability to time travel. After the usual discussions about the butterfly effect and so on, Tim decides to use his newfound ability to get a girlfriend. But the path of true love is obviously not smooth, and in time travelling to unselfishly help others, Tim ends up doing so seemingly to the detriment of his own life, almost George Bailey style.

Speaking of It’s a Wonderful Life, some have foolishly criticised Curtis’s work for its lack of grittiness, but I have always loved his determined optimism, and a Curtis film isn’t meant to be Ken Loach. Here I think he has made his wisest, most mature film to date; closer than ever to the elusive spirit of Frank Capra. This isn’t a film about the quantum physics of time travel. It’s about celebrating people who are kind and good at heart, in spite of their mistakes.

Performances are all very good, especially from Nighy and the excellent Domhnall Gleeson. Some criticised the casting of Rachel McAdams (her second time travelling film), but I thought she was perfectly fine. And there’s some great support from the likes of Tom Hollander, Lindsay Duncan, Lydia Wilson, Richard Cordery, and Joshua McGuire.

On a moral and spiritual level, the message of the film is clear: Enjoy what is really important in life, ie family, children, love, and so forth. As a wise person once said, no-one ever lay on their deathbed wishing they’d spent more time at work. This being Curtisland, money is somewhat naively dismissed as a serious concern in life, but actually there is wisdom in what Nighy tells his son when advising him on the use of his time travelling abilities: The pursuit of money is a trap that ends in perpetual misery.

Another interesting moment comes when Tim is tempted to use his time travelling ability to cheat on his girlfriend (he could simply go back afterwards and make a different choice, retaining full memories of the actual encounter). However instead he literally runs away – a nice illustration of the Bible’s exhortation to flee sexual immorality. Obviously this is all relative to present western secular morality, since he and his girlfriend aren’t actually married at that point but are in a sexual relationship (and the film does contain the usual token Curtis smutty jokes), but you get my general point.

Ultimately, About Time is a lovely piece of work, with charm, warmth and wit to spare. The films of Richard Curtis may be a fantasy (and a largely godless one), but they do introduce you to endearing, likeable characters that you are sad to leave when the end credits roll. Yes, they’re cosy, middle-class and sentimental, but that is exactly why I like them and I make no apology for that.

Another day, another slasher flick. With the notable exception of John Carpenter’s original Halloween I generally find this particular horror subgenre repulsive and/or funny rather than scary. Even the great granddaddy of them all, Psycho, I tend to view as a black comedy, which says a lot about my sense of humour.

Anyway, to the matter at hand. As expected You’re Next is repulsively gory and only occasionally funny but not scary. The plot rehashes just about every other slasher film ever made, and although director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett try to give the usual cliches a fresh lick of paint, the big twists are easy to see coming.

The plot setup is very familiar: a family gathering in a remote location comes under siege by murderous assailants in animal masks. These wealthy and unsympathetic characters are dispatched in inventively gruesome ways, but the girlfriend of one family member turns out to be a trained survivalist and fights back.

Make no mistake – anyone without tolerance for industrial amounts of gore (and swearing) should give this 18 rated bloodbath a very wide berth. For anyone who does like this kind of thing, there are far more effective entries in the genre. I can’t even recommend it on a style over substance basis as the style is unremarkable. Obviously the substance is just lots of horrible people being horribly killed.

In short, don’t bother.

It would be easy to dismiss The Way Way Back as yet another by the numbers coming of age drama, but this entry in the well worn genre is several notches above average, not least because of a terrific performance by the brilliant Sam Rockwell.

Rockwell plays slacker water resort manager Owen, who takes fourteen year old Duncan (Liam James) under his wing when he is forced to spend a summer holiday with his mother Pam (Toni Collette) and her obnoxious new boyfriend Trent (Steve Carrell), who rates Duncan as a “three” on “a scale of one to ten”. The usual tropes of this kind of film are then duly played out with Owen becoming an unlikely mentor to Duncan, who in turn gains confidence, self worth and finds romance with girl next door Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb), who has her own parental complaints to overcome.

Performances are all very good, especially from the afore-mentioned Rockwell. The witty, knowing screenplay ensures all characters are properly developed and writer/directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash helm the piece with a sure hand(s), even playing a couple of small roles themselves.

On a moral/spiritual note, this is yet another examination of the effect of parental separation on children (there seems to have been an awful lot of those this year), the spin here being that the adults behave like children and vice versa (one character refers to their location as being “like Spring Break for adults”). But this doesn’t point fingers of blame. Even characters like Trent are ultimately allowed a smidgeon of sympathy, and as such this is about accepting whatever hand life deals you and being confident regardless.

The Way Way Back isn’t going to change the course of cinema, but it is a quirky, funny, touching gem of a film that punches well above its humble ambitions, and will appeal to anyone who has ever had to overcome awkwardness in their formative years, not to mention parental separation.