Undefeated
Sunshine, February 21, 2012
Movie #9 for 2012
Holy crap, you guys, “Friday Night Lights” is real. So is The Blind Side. That’s a weird thing to say, since they were both based on non-fiction books, but I assumed much was embellished via the television/movie machine. Undefeated is “Friday Night Lights: The Documentary”.
Set in North Memphis, Tennessee, Undefeated is the story of a high school football team of poor black kids coached by a dedicated volunteer named Bill. Bill is a real life Coach Taylor - he communicates primarily in earnest, intense speeches - although he is even more interested in building up boys than his FNL counterpart. Which is lucky, because these kids are no Smash Williams and the program at Manassas High is more East Dillon than Dillon.
Film-makers DANIEL LINDSAY and T.J. MARTIN follow three boys - Money is a senior, smart but too small to have a hope of playing football past college, who sinks into despair after an injury; O.C. is the perfect left tackle (the position made famous by The Blind Side), he’s big, he’s strong and he’s fast, but unless he gets his grades up he'll be stuck in North Memphis too; and then there’s Chavin, the anger-management-free zone who has just returned to school and the football team after a year in juvie. Bill is determined that this team can do what none other has in the hundred-plus-year history of the school: win a play-off game. More than a story about football, though, it's actually about crushing poverty and young men in desperate circumstances.
It’s an incredibly powerful story and – despite the handheld camera and intense close-ups – it’s actually really well shot. The characters (seems strange to call them that since they are so plainly real people) are all flawed and likeable and have tragedies and triumphs and journeys. Plus, there’s genuinely tension-filled sport.
There’s not a single thing that I look for in a film that Undefeated doesn't deliver.
