Directed by:
Peter BergCinematography:
Tobias A. SchliesslerCast:
Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Amber Heard, Lee Thompson Young, Lee Jackson, Connie Britton, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund, Kasey Stevens (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Set in 1988, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS opens on the first day of practice for the Odessa Permian Panthers. Under intense pressure and scrutiny from the town's residents, head coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) nonetheless maintains a calm façade. His star player, Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), is a running back with unlimited potential, but the rest of the team is undersized and lacking killer instinct--especially quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black), who's shy and short of confidence, and Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund), who is tormented by his father (Tim McGraw) for being too soft. When Boobie goes down on opening day with a career threatening knee injury, the season appears to be over. But Gaines won't give up, and neither will the rest of his feisty players. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (1)
Peter Berg made a film that captures the cruelty of high-school football, a sport in which adolescent players can tough the sky, reaching a level that they will never come close to again. Berg attempted to combine a character study with the narrative/filming style that we know from Michael Bay and his blockbusters. The restless, dynamic camerawork with changing perspectives, collages and ellipses halfway works, like the post-rock noodling of Explosions in the Sky, which seemed to belong to a slightly different film. The protagonists don’t hold onto the ball long enough for us to really get to know them, their stories are sketchy to the point of being formulaic and the film itself is not very well constructed dramatically. Some themes (for example, the racial tension between the Panthers and Cowboys) are utterly half-baked. With respect to the football scenes, however, it ranks among the best and most realistic, if only the linebackers and running backs didn’t have to fly through the air like Superman. There is something appealingly ’90s about Friday Night Lights, but as a drama, it doesn’t quite get into the red zone. And the end zone remains far out of reach.
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