Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a couple reviews... one for the Billy Bob Thornton college football flick FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, which is one of the many positives we've received, and one for a more obscure UK revenge flick called DEAD MAN'S SHOES. I haven't seen either, although I believe FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS comes out today in the States. I'm not a particular lover of sports flicks (except for the obvious masterpieces), but this one sounds like it's something special. Anyway, on with the reviews!!!
Hey, Harry- big fan of the site, this is my first time submitting. On Thursday of last week (September 30th), I attended a preview screening of Friday Night Lights. I've been debating writing this review for about a week now, so I know it might be a bit late since the movie opens on Friday, however I feel I can offer a unique perspective on the film.
I attend Carroll Senior High School in Southlake, Texas which currently has the number one high school football team not only in the state of Texas, but in the nation. Therefore, Universal apparently decided that our team and our school deserved to see an early screening of the film as much as anyone else. Fortunately, they sent us way too many passes so not only did the team get to go, but so did any other students interested in attending.
My family is huge about football. My dad played in high school and college, and my brother played last year at Carroll as the star wide-reciever, so I have experienced Texas high school football very, very first hand. Several of my best friends are also intregal players on the team and I witness every day what they go through.
Peter Berg's film gets it all right. The film is stunningly realistic, and hits many poignant subjects relating to high school football that only those who experience it would think to include in a film. I'm not a big fan of some recent sports films. Varsity Blues had a very thought-provoking whipped-cream scene, and that's about it. Remember the Titans made me want to projectile vomit all over Walt Disney's family. Those movies did not capture the soul and truth of high school football anywhere near as well as Friday Night Lights, and in my opinion, no other movie has. The movie chronicles the Permian Panthers of Odessa Texas (a team which we have played on numerous occassions) and illustrates the financial crisis and desperation of their town, and how their high school football team serves as an escape for its citizens. It's almost frightening how much the players depend on the game to escape their parents, escape the town, and become the heroes the know they will never be again.
The acting from Billy Bob Thorton was amazing. He portrays a Texas high school coach perfectly; in temperament, interaction, and the organic sadness and fear in his eyes in reaction to the pressure being built up on him by the people of Oddessa. Another standout from the cast is Boobie, a character played by the guy who played Antone Fisher in an excellent performance that illustrates perfectly how much these players rely on football to succeed in other areas of school (one of his lines, "Football is the only subject" is sadly true for a lot of the players on our team who have coaches as history teachers and therefore get A's without knowing which president George Washington was). The scene with Boobie and his grandfather in the car is one of the key emotional moments in the film and works beautifully. Tim McGraw was also shockingly good as the drunken father of one of the team members, and actually made me cringe in several moments, but the final moment between he and his son at the State game is very touching and honest. The players are also good, however besides Boobie, in retrospect some of them run together, so I guess there weren't any other real standouts among them.
Of course the film wasn't perfect, but oh well. Some of the characters are slightly exaggerated and some of the writing meant to illustrate the parents' fanaticism is a little awkward, but to be honest it bothered me very little.
The end of the film was very emotional for me and basically everyone else in the theatre. The cheerleaders behind me were bawling (loudly) and most people I talked to shed a tear. It is a very truthful and honest ending that hit very close to home for me and the rest of my school. The haunting, heart-wrenching image of the quarterback throwing the football to younger kids and driving away has stayed in my memory since leaving the theatre.
I wonder if people who have not experienced what my peers and I have will find the same emotional connection with the film that we did. I can see some people finding the obsession of the town to be exaggerated, but if they thought the movie was exaggerated came to one of our games, they would probably wonder what other dimension they had been transported to. It's kind of creepy seeing three year old girls in Carroll Dragon cheerleader uniforms wandering the stands and fights actually break out over football between people who really have nothing to do with football. It's weird. Just. Weird. But it's how it is, and I've come to accept and enjoy it. And knowing the religion of Texas football inside and out, experiencing every day, I love Friday Night Lights and hope that everyone else who sees it does, too.
And here's a review for a flick we Americans can't see at the moment. I love a good "Grey Area" movie and this one seems to be chock full of "Grey People." Enjoy!
Hi Harry / Mori
Haven’t seen anything on your site regarding this, so I thought I’d send you a quick review of a new Brit flick I saw last night at the local plex which is on General release both here in Ireland and in the UK.
The film is Dead Man’s Shoes directed and co written by Shane Meadows (Once Upon a Time the Midlands) and starring and co written by Paddy Considine (In America).
Considine plays Richard. An ex soldier returning home to his semi-rural English town to seek revenge on local lowlifes who have been bullying and harassing his younger, mentally disabled brother Anthony.
Plot wise that’s about it.
The film plays out like a revenge flick, however in exchange for a good versus bad ideals of most other revenge flick out there; we get a film full of grey characters.
No character is truly evil here and our hero is far from “good”. What starts out as a few pranks played by Richard on the thugs soon turns into bloodbath. Although the film is not extremely violent you can’t help wince at certain scenes, mostly due to the way Considine’s Richard calmly and unflinchingly executes the bullies, barley breaking a sweat or raising his voice. It is in this way that see what a great performer Considine is. His Richard is quiet, introverted, the type of guy you would pass I the street and barley even notice him but when confronted you can see just under the surface his rage bubbling and twisting.
A great example of this is in a scene in which head thug Sonny confronts Richard and tries to intimidate him, and within seconds Richard has turned the tables on Sonny, again without raising his voice or losing his calm and by the end of the scene has him running scared.
As I said earlier there really is no “good” or “bad” guy in this film just different shades of grey. At first when the killings start, I was rooting for Richard , wanting him to reek havoc, but as the film goes on and the story of how Anthony has been mistreated is revealed ( through black and white flash back ) I started to question was I really on the right side. Did these men really deserve to die for what was essentially a little bit of bullying?. Of course I made my mind up about which side I was on in the end but I’ll let you make that decision for yourself.
Overall I would highly recommend this film to anybody who enjoys a good old fashioned revenge flick, without all the bells and whistles.
Hopefully this review helps. If it’s incoherent or badly put together with poor grammar and terrible spelling. I do apologize, I’m writing it in work with the boss on my back.
If you use this call me Papa Lazarou.
