Race (2016)

Jack and I enjoyed this bio-pic about American Olympic track star Jesse Owens, beginning with his early life in segregated society and culminating with his gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Berlin. Stephan James, who played John Lewis in Selma, does a great job as the young man with big dreams and the skills to match. Jason Sudeikis (last blogged in Horrible Bosses 2) is totally believable in his first dramatic role as coach Larry Snyder from Ohio State University who nurtures those skills. Jeremy Irons (most recently in Margin Call) and William Hurt (profiled in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby) both bring gravity to their roles as members of the Olympic Committee. And I quite liked Carice van Houten (she was in Black Book (2006) and Valkyrie) as Hitler's filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.

Before this, director Stephen Hopkins has helmed a lot of TV shows, including 36 episodes of House of Lies (Glynn Turman, who plays Marty Kaan's father on House of Lies, makes an appearance in this one), twelve of 24, and some features I haven't seen. The writing team of Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse are new to me as well, but I may watch Shrapnel's Oscar-nominated short The Tonto Woman (2008), which can be streamed here. I did appreciate the double entendre of the title. As with most period movies, we admired the production designer's work, especially the cars. Here we can thank David Brisbin, whose previous work I've seen only in The Lookout (2007), though he's designed dozens more.

Rachel Portman's (last blogged for Belle) urgent and majestic soundtrack can be streamed from this link.

This time the critics, averaging 60%, are harsher than the audiences at 82 on Rotten Tomatoes. Don't run out of the theatre or turn off the DVD right away, as the credits include some pertinent history.