'Friday' Will Light Up Your Night

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2004)

There are many types of formula movies. A romantic comedy, a slasher, a thriller, the list just goes on. Sports movies tend to be formulaic too. Usually, it's the underdogs that rise to greatness through their coach. It also helps if the story is based on actual events. You see this played out in both directions. The bad is embodied in The Rookie, which sub came to the expectations of Disney. The other end of the spectrum is Friday Night Lights, which really is a formula but has the heart that The Rookies needed. Friday Night Lights will hopefully take its place next to films like Hoosiers as one of the greats about sports.
Billy Bob Thorton is the football coach in Odessa, Texas. The town lives and breathes football and they want nothing more than for their team to take state. The players are average teenage boys. They want to win for the glory it will bring their school/town but also to get scholarships out of Odessa, which we see through the opening credits, is not a place anyone would want to settle in for life. Thorton usually plays roles where he appears magnified. He is usually the stand out because of the nature of his character. Here, he plays the opposite of that. He is the most human of all the people in the film. He is grounded and realizes that 'the only difference between winning and losing is how people treat you.' His performance is subtle and, although not as showy as, say, Bad Santa, is just as good.
For a fan of football, the movie does not disappoint. The plays are excellent and anyone who has ever watched their very capable team fumble time and time again will feel those same feelings when watching this. At the same time, it does not lack the glory of the kick-off return run for a touchdown or the fifty-yard run by the player that isn't even a running back. It is the perfect mix of reality and hope.
While Friday Night Lights specializes in football, it does try and add character development. It's nice but, at times, falters and you have to remember, this is not part of the formula that it subscribes to. In these scenes, the cinematography tries for the stylized chaos look but comes off more as chaos than something art made. I don't think that the level of film-making should decrease with the genre and so that makes the errors in Friday Night Lights inexcusable but still they have to be looked at as attempts to widen the boundaries of this type of storytelling and that is commendable. Most sports films like to have character growth and often accomplish about the same amount as 'Lights' but what is different here is how it is made a main priority to try and get across some motives at the same times show incredible, miraculous touchdowns.
I won't spoil the ending but will simply say that it is 'perfect'. It is perfect the way Billy Bob Thorton tells his players to be. He gives a perfect speech to his perfect players in a perfect film.
***1/2 out of *****