Friday Night Lights

...this is a film about American football, but it is so much more. It is a stark survey of the hold sport has on life, with its tribal allure and power to devastate both supporter and player.

The movie demonstrates the power of sports to involve us; we don't live in Odessa and are watching a game played 16 years ago, and we get all wound up.

...[a] depiction of seizing the moment and coping with the onerous pressure of being a star jock in a town that irrationally defines itself via athletics.

Based on the novel of the same name by HG Bissinger, Friday Night Lights is a superior coming-of-age film based around one town’s obsession with its high-school football team.