Don't sleep on Julius Tennon

Rating: Null/10 (3 August 2011)

Performances in this movie were top notch. Others have praised Billy Bob Thornton, Tim McGraw, Derek Luke and others; I'll draw your attention to Julius Tennon, who played the coach of Dallas-Carter. He's pretty much the villain here, and he is _perfect_ in his role. He gives a performance that should have been up for a Supporting Actor Academy Award, if the Academy actually honored supporting actors (like, for instance, Dame Judy Dench in Shakespeare in Love; probably the last time an actor with an incidental role will be so honored) instead of second leads. The sideline scenes in FNL are all so well done, and you can see the chess match taking place in the minds of the coaches, particularly when one coach has all the pieces. I can't think of a better football movie that I've seen. I prefer it to Remember the Titans and North Dallas Forty, among those that come to mind.