Pedantic pigskin story, based on the well-regarded nonfiction book by H.G. Bissinger, set in football-mad West Texas: the pressures, the twisted passions, the bitter pills, the life lessons. Billy Bob Thornton, who appears to take more than just the overbite from G.D. Spradlin in North Dallas Forty, is the beleaguered coach of the Permian High Panthers in the small town of Odessa. Derek Luke, pronouncing Nike to rhyme with Mike, is the one-man offense who tears up his knee after ripping off five or six TDs in the opening game. Jay Hernandez is the second-stringer who steps into the big shoes. Garrett Hedlund, a screen newcomer, is the butterfingers with an abusive alcoholic father (country singer Tim McGraw). And Lucas Black is the tightly wound quarterback who must shoulder most of the burden as well as an embarrassment of a mother. The affectations of authenticity in the directing style of Peter Berg -- the jiggly camerawork, the jagged editing, the windblown dialogue, the desiccated color -- can scarcely forge a single coherent scene, let alone a whole coherent football game. (2004) — Duncan Shepherd
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