Friday Night Lights is about football and the town of Odessa, Texas that lives and breathes it. As far as sports movies go, it sticks pretty close to the play book - but it executes those plays very well. Based on the true story of the 1988 Permian Panthers and their quest for the Texas State Championship, Friday Night Lights takes a hard look at the boys and the coach that carry the weight of a town's hopes and dreams on their young shoulders.

Coach Gaines has a small but fast team on his hands and he is hopeful that this is the year, led by star receiver Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), they might be able to make it to the state championship. But the movie isn't just about Miles and his dotting uncle LV (Grover Coulson). It's about quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) and his struggles between his football scholarship dreams and his obligations to his mentally ill mother. It's about receiver Don Billingsly (Garrett Hedlund) who struggles to hold on to the ball on the field and struggles off the field with his demanding former football star father (Tim McGraw) who hopes to relive his football glory through his son. It's about the struggles of the team as they come together to try to win the game.

Unlike Remember the Titans, which was a dramatic story which happened to take place on a football field; Friday Night Lights is a football story which happens to have dramatic elements. Football is front and center in this film. If you don't like football, you will not like this movie at all. Director Peter Berg is definitely a fan and he shoots the football sequences with energy and intensity.

Billy Bob Thornton wisely gives an understated performance. In fact, the performances in the film compliment each other nicely, fitting for a movie about a team. Lucas Black as the quietly intense quarterback with his ailing mom, Derek Luke as the star who has to grapple with a scary new reality and Garrett Hedlund and Tim McGraw as the father and son with the stormy relationship all give solid performances. 

Friday Night Lights, the book, examined the town of Odessa and closely followed the lives of the players. From what I have heard the book went into great detail about the racial, economic and educational tensions in the town and on the team as well as the lives of the players. A movie doesn't have the luxury of being able to tell many stories. A movie has the task of telling one story well. For the most part, Friday Night Lights is a well told story. However, there are questions that the movie poses that are never fully addressed or and that can be frustrating for the viewer.

Football fans should put this on their must-see list.