Review of Friday Night Lights (2004) by Greg L — 29 Aug 2009

While it takes a few liberties with the story, the film largely eschews sports movie cliches in favor of a fascinating, insightful look at the subculture of big-time high school football, with some thought-provoking observations on sociological and economic conditions in modern America thrown in.

The performances are uniformly good (no pun intended), and the naturalistic, near documentary style in which the film was shot is perfect for the material. All in all, it's one of the better movies about high school sports I've ever seen.