Friday Night Lights

Any great sports movie needs just a few simple ingredients: exciting action scenes that actually resemble the sport being played, strong characters with points to prove, an underdog with a mountain to climb, and, perhaps most importantly, those magic words "Based on a true story". There is enough drama in real sport to render fictitious scripts in the genre redundant, and this movie digs up a wonderful story from the archives of pre-college American football in the 1980's Texas town Odessa. Billy Bob Thornton is the only real name on the list, and he does his job well enough as the under-pressure coach, including the ubiquitous half time speech in the final game - but it is the supporting ensemble of young actors under the helmets and under the expectations of the whole town that really shine. Included in the line-up is one Lucas Black, who appeared in Thornton's labour of love, the brilliant Slingblade, almost a decade ago, and now seems ready to break through into the A-league judging on this subtle and convincing portrayal of troubled quarterback Mike Witchell. You may remember him best as the freaky kid from cult TV show American Gothic - but he is 23 now, and with credits such as Cold Mountain, Friday Night Lights and the upcoming Jarhead under his belt, I'm going to tip him right now as one of the next big things. He steals the film, and quite rightly the plot focuses our affections on him in the "will they, won't they?" climax and beyond. I liked this a lot, and believe that even those who loathe sports films will be sucked in to the human story running through its heart. In slight criticism, the MTV style editing in the action sequences was a little overplayed - but otherwise, for what it is, it works on every level and comes highly recommended as a good popcorn fix. 8.5/10 Kx