Rush: Cinema Strangiato

★★★★ Dir: Dale Heslip ANTHEM/TRAFALGAR RELEASING. C Has short bonus feature on frontman Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book Of Bass. Essentially a lengthy addendum to Rush: Time Stand Still, the 2016 film documenting Rush’s final world tour, Cinema Strangiato’s additional live, backstage and interview footage is manna for a fanbase out of sorts since Alex Lifeson’s arthritis and Neil Peart’s chronic tendonitis did for the Canuck power trio. There’s dramatic strength, too, in the R40 Tour’s key trope: as Rush trace their back pages in reverse chronological order, their crew slowly strips away the hi-tech, so by the time the band airs tunes from 1974’s

Rush, Lee and Lifeson’s amps mirror those they used playing Toronto high schools. A version of ’82’s Losing It – a song about ageing’s corrosive effect upon artistry – raises the poignancy, but there’s plenty of fun and games too. Watch out for kilted Scotsman Harry Satchel (Lee), and moustachioed Rush in fat suits playing a banjo-and-saw-appointed Tom Sawyer. James McNair