John Chard
7/31/2016
I'm going deeper underground! Rush is directed by Lili Fini Zanuck and adapted to screenplay by Peter Dexter from the Kim Wozencraft novel. It stars Jason Patric, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sam Elliott, Max Perlich and Gregg Allman. Music is by Eric Clapton and cinematography by Kenneth MacMillan. Two undercover narcotic cops get on a downward spiral that they may not return from... Set and filmed in Texas, Rush is a hot, sweaty and claustrophobic neo- noir. It maybe doesn't have the classic visual tics of yesteryear, but it has photographic style to burn - with Clapton's score suitably melancholic, which in turn is something that sits perfectly with the perpetual sense of doom that pervades the pic. Corruption and addiction lead the way, all while love tries its hardest to break on through to the other side, but we are on a bus to noirville, and noirville is an unforgiving place... Patric and Leigh are damn fine actors if given the right material to work with, and they carry this with aplomb. Sadly, Allman is a weak villain, maybe because he looks like a Rick Wakeman clone?! While under using Sam Elliott is just a plain waste. However, this deserves its place on neo-noir lists. It is deliberate in pacing, therefore asking for you to buy into the thematics at work, to let them itch your skin, but to do so has rewards, for in true noir style it doesn't chicken out once the end credits have rolled. 7.5/10
