When I first watched "Friday Night Lights" a few months ago, I was inclined to give it just ** because some scenes glamorize high school football violence.
October 6, 2006 (Press Release) --
When I first watched "Friday Night Lights" a few months ago, I was inclined to give it just ** because some scenes glamorize high school football violence. But I calmed down and watched it again this week and remembered its real heft -- beautiful American filmmaking of bleak lives.
This will sound odd, but what irks me is a collection of really good songs by Rage Against the Machine and other musicians. Revved-up, uptempo tunes spin while kids pound each other. This is on my reviewer's copy. The music may or may not change by the time the drama debuts tonight. But clearly such songs make violence look cool here.
That gets under my skin because the rest of "Friday Night Lights" is anything but glam violence. Without the pep-squad songs, the premiere would have been nearly perfect.
Like the movie and non-fiction book it's based on, "Friday Night Lights" chronicles teenage football players, their friends, family and coach. It isn't as ambitious or objective as HBO's "The Wire," but it's about as close as broadcast TV gets to "The Wire." It finely depicts the daily grim and gritty existence of kids and adults dealing with narrow hopes, sad expectations, provincial victories, race and poverty.
Peter Berg wrote and directed tonight's debut maybe more gorgeously than he did the movie. His verite style is to take documentary-esque visuals and dialogue to a sumptuous level. The camera and words keep flowing, but without jarring the look or sound.
The lens focuses on a woman's foot as it taps. She watches a home-shopping network. Her grandson rides off to school and his life is about to change as a second-string quarterback.
The lens subtly spies a boy star sprawled drunk on a couch in the daytime before he stumbles to practice.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
POSTED BY DOUG ELFMAN
This will sound odd, but what irks me is a collection of really good songs by Rage Against the Machine and other musicians. Revved-up, uptempo tunes spin while kids pound each other. This is on my reviewer's copy. The music may or may not change by the time the drama debuts tonight. But clearly such songs make violence look cool here.
That gets under my skin because the rest of "Friday Night Lights" is anything but glam violence. Without the pep-squad songs, the premiere would have been nearly perfect.
Like the movie and non-fiction book it's based on, "Friday Night Lights" chronicles teenage football players, their friends, family and coach. It isn't as ambitious or objective as HBO's "The Wire," but it's about as close as broadcast TV gets to "The Wire." It finely depicts the daily grim and gritty existence of kids and adults dealing with narrow hopes, sad expectations, provincial victories, race and poverty.
Peter Berg wrote and directed tonight's debut maybe more gorgeously than he did the movie. His verite style is to take documentary-esque visuals and dialogue to a sumptuous level. The camera and words keep flowing, but without jarring the look or sound.
The lens focuses on a woman's foot as it taps. She watches a home-shopping network. Her grandson rides off to school and his life is about to change as a second-string quarterback.
The lens subtly spies a boy star sprawled drunk on a couch in the daytime before he stumbles to practice.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
POSTED BY DOUG ELFMAN
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