Sports movie 'Friday' worthy Oscar contender

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

Coach Gary Gains, played by Billy Bob Thornton, motivates the Permian High Panthers in "Friday Night Lights." The movie follows the team's dramas on and off the field as the coach tries to balance winning the state championship with concern for the players. Universal Studios

Despite great reviews and a good opening weekend, "Friday Night Lights" was only moderately successful, probably because it was perceived as just another sports movie.

That misconception should be rectified by the release of the DVD (4 stars, Universal), which should convince a new audience that this is one of last year's best films of any description. It's a faithful adaptation of former journalist Buzz Bissinger's best-seller about a year spent in football-obsessed Odessa, Texas, as the coach and players devote themselves to winning a state championship.

Director Peter Berg (who also is Bissinger's cousin) divides his time between the on-field action, which is filmed with hand-held cameras for bone-crushing realism, and the ongoing drama that takes place away from the gridiron, focusing on Gaines as he tries to balance winning with concern for his players.

That concern is most noticeably directed at star running back Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), who suffers an injury that threatens to ruin the season; talented but troubled quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) and running back Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund), whose inability to hold on to the ball results in physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father, a former team star, played with convincing intensity by country singer Tim McGraw.

"Lights" could still pick up an Oscar nod or two in technical categories and should qualify for editing and sound design, the latter of which can be fully appreciated in the 5.1 Surround mix on the DVD.

Extras include a commentary by Bissinger and Berg that covers a lot of the same territory they explored in a Detroit Free Press interview last fall; outtakes that consist primarily of extended scenes; and a 30-minute visit with many of the people portrayed in the film, including the ill-fated Miles.

Best of B movies

The "it-sounded-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time" movie of 2004 may have been "Catwoman," but even Halle Berry in leather — with a whip no less — and Sharon Stone as a supermodel gone very bad could do little for a film that placed style over story and whose style was little to meow about anyway.

The extras on the DVD (2 stars, Warner), including deleted scenes and a history of the character (who was reinvented for this movie anyway), qualify for some sort of thanks-but-no-thanks award.

Providing a more welcome surprise was "Cellular," a thriller from writer Larry Cohen ("Phone Booth") with a concept that, when you hear it, sounds like, sorry, wrong number. But its story — kidnapped Kim Basinger relies on a stranger (Chris Evans) whose cell phone she randomly calls to help save her and her family — pushed all the right B-movie buttons.

It hardly deserves the deluxe DVD "InfiniFilm" treatment (3 stars, New Line), with the format's trademark branching system that provides prompts throughout the movie connecting viewers to the extras, but it still makes for a good weekend rental.

Not nearly as recommendable is the misbegotten misfire "The Forgotten" (1 star, Columbia-TriStar), in which Julianne Moore mourns the loss of a son even though her shrink (Gary Sinise) and husband (Anthony Edwards) assure her he never really existed. Directed by Joseph Ruben, whose manipulative-thriller resume includes "The Stepfather" and "Sleeping With the Enemy," its twists all turn the story for the worse and it deserves all the puns its title invited.

Touch of reality

Those who prefer crime stories with characters who bear a resemblance to reality are hereby steered to "Touchez pas au grisbi" (4 stars, Criterion Collection). Loosely translated as "Hands Off the Loot," director Jacques Becker's 1954 drama stars weary tough guy Jean Gabin — the French Bogart — as an aging, old-school gangster. He's already pulled off the big job but his chances of enjoying retirement with his sexy young girlfriend are jeopardized when his partner brags about their crime to unscrupulous chorus girl Jeanne Moreau.

"Touchez pas au grisbi" is one of those rare films that seems languid even as it's telling its tale in a brief and absorbing 96 minutes. Criterion, as usual, gives it the respect it deserves, including new interviews with two surviving members of the cast and two fine accompanying essays.

'Enthusiasm' continues

"Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Third Season" (4 stars, HBO) continues the fictionalized (we can only hope) documentation of creator and star Larry David's inability to appreciate the life he has made for himself.

Over the course of 10 episodes from 2002, he somehow manages to escape mostly unscathed even after he contributes to the delinquency of a minor; ruins an Alanis Morissette concert and foists an incompetent nanny on some friends. As ever, you will be ashamed of yourself and David through your laughter.

Drama choices

Because of the holiday season, some excellent DVDs got lost in the rush. The list is headed by "The Letter" (4 stars, Warner). Director William Wyler's 1940 treatment of a compelling drama from a W. Somerset Maugham work, it stars Bette Davis as an adulterer determined to beat a murder rap.

Next is 1942's "Random Harvest" (3 stars, Warner), a fine melodrama starring Ronald Colman as a World War II amnesiac saved from a life in a mental institution by music hall siren Greer Garson. Finally, there is 1952's "Ivanhoe" (3 stars, Warner) in which Robert Taylor, as the title character in Sir Walter Scott's tale of chivalry and honor, pledges to do all it takes to return Richard the Lionheart to the throne.

All contain relevant extras, which in the case of the latter, is a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon take on the legend.