Hope Lives Under The Friday Night Lights.

Rating: 9/10 (30 May 2007)

*Friday Night SPOILERS*
Odessa, Texas, 1988.
The local High School Football Team, the Permian Panthers, is the center of a (very scary) town-spread obsession; people do not seem to care about anything else - as is shown by two people that call the local radio, Mojo radio; one doesn't seem to care that quite the sum of money that could have benefited the school only went into remodernation for the school stadium, commenting 'it WAS spent for the school; isn't the stadium part of the school, too?' and another, quite disconcerting one, after the Permian lose a game, calls and proclaims angrily 'There's too much learning' going' on at that school!' (Learning? In a HIGH SCHOOL? Oh the horror!... Go hang yourself, will you?), and by the fact that, after a lost game, the coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) comes home to find 'On Sale' signs on his front lawn - and of course, other than Gaines, the young men on the team are the ones that are hit harder by the responsibility.
The main player, Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), who is an ace player, doesn't seem to care about that; actually he's way too self-conscious and arrogant, which leads to him hiding a companion's helmet to go back to the field for an unnecessary action and getting badly injured, to the point of actually having to leave agonistic football playing.
So, it's going to be up to the other players, like Mike Winchell (Lucas Black), who is burdened with a very ill mother, Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund), whose father Charlie (Country Music Star Tim McGraw, debuting as an actor), who won a tournament while in the Permian Panthers, is an alcoholic who reacts quite hardly at his son's apparent inability to hold the football in his hands, Chris Comer (Lee Thompson Young), who ends up leading the team through the State tournament, Ivory Christian (Lee Jackson), the quietest player on the team, and Brian Chavez (Jay Hernandez), the only one who, with his good grades, is sure of leaving Odessa and its obsessions behind.
And it will be a tough time...
This movie, though not entirely real (the accident that happened to Boobie, as an example, happened during a pre-season scrimmage against Amarillo Palo Duro at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, where he injured his leg by getting his foot caught on the AstroTurf), is a very engaging, inspiring and also chilling experience, which seems to mirror some things I have seen people in my country do to players in a different game, soccer.
The acting was very good (especially newcomer McGraw), the music and pace intense, and the direction was spot-on.
Don't let this one slip through your fingers!
Friday Night Lights: 9/10.