Starring Billy Bob Thornton and Lucas Black. Rating PG.

My high school is having a class reunion this weekend. Most of my friends will not be attending. Even for the popular clique, school life is not always pleasant. And when you're an outsider--a nerd--it's a horror. And who makes it that way? Those who can: the strong, aggressive, dominant kids.

The jocks.

I like sports now; I play a little hockey. But in high school, I played nothing. As a result, it often felt like I was nothing, while the jocks had everything. Consequently, I've never been too interested in movies that glamourize high-school sports--which, paradoxically, is why I can feel somewhat enthusiastic about Friday Night Lights.

Based on the nonfiction book by H.G. Bissinger (and directed by Bissinger's actor cousin, Peter Berg), Friday Night Lights is an epic trek through the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers. The Panthers hail from Odessa (population 90,000), and are probably the most successful high-school sports program in Texas. The town may lack a few things, like culture, jobs, and natural beauty, but the Panthers have undefeated seasons and fill their 20,000-seat stadium every Friday. They are the lords of the oilpatch.

In 1988, the Panthers had something of an off year. They actually lost several games. Panic overtook the town. There's a nice moment in which Coach Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) arrives home to discover a lawn full of For Sale signs.

Friday Night Lights is well-played by Thornton and his young charges. The simulated game footage is impressively shot, and country superstar Tim McGraw makes a stunning film debut as the football-mad father of a Panther fullback. Completely concerned with team success, his character's absurd
ravings make the impossible-to-overemphasize point that sports victories are essentially meaningless. Character is not developed by sports, and lives are not improved. If sport is not fun for the participants, then it is nothing. Even with another state pennant.

These denunciations make Friday Night Lights an unusually brave entertainment. It comes close to actually telling obsessive sports fans, folk most likely to be interested in this movie, that their hobby is ridiculous--indeed, that they themselves are ridiculous. That is insulting, and rather cool.

And yet, on some levels it's just more spotlight time for the jocks. Someday I'd like to see a movie about someone like Brian Deneke. He knew all about the hierarchy in Texas high schools because he was at the bottom, a punk rocker. In 1997, another kid ran over him and expressed satisfaction to onlookers. It was a pretty obvious manslaughter case. The driver got a suspended sentence. He was on the football team.