Friday Night Lights

The lights in question are floodlights, in the harsh glare of which 17-year-old boys live out the vicarious hopes of an entire town during a High School football season in 1988. Based on a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Buzz Bissinger, Friday Night Lights is a cut above the typical sports movie about a bunch of misfits licked into shape by a maverick coach. A true story, it's concerned less with the football action than it is with the moral issues raised when the entire community of Odessa, Texas, puts too much pressure on young shoulders. The local sheriff makes oblique threats to Coach Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton in an excellent performance); the quarterback (Lucas Black) is more concerned about his mother's mental health than throwing touchdown passes; star player Boobie Miles (Luke) has to decide whether the team or his long-term health is more important. Superb cinematography takes you right into the heart of the gut-churning action, Tobias Schliessler employing a grainy texture that functions as an ironic commentary on the nostalgia espoused by the Odessa inhabitants, while director Berg consistently refuses to take the crowd-pleasing options, right up to - and after - the final whistle of the season.