…It’s a football movie, what can you say. It’s like Chinese food — hard to do really well, hard to screw up really badly. I liked this one a lot; I like Peter Berg as a director in terms of pacing, although some of the editing got a little precious, and I didn’t love the subplot with Billingsley and his dad, it felt a little tired, but Hedlund and Tim McGraw did good work with it. And you know who I just love: Lucas Black. I didn’t recognize him at first; Winchell comes on the screen, and I’m like, “I know I know that kid from somewhere,” and it took me a good 15 minutes to realize it was the kid from Sling Blade. I loved him in that, too; he had that wonderful bones-left-in accent, and there was just something interesting and watchable about him. He still has that something. I don’t know if it’s good acting, exactly, so much as a certain breed of charisma that makes you feel like the character is someone you know, or could know. And I’ll tell you, it doesn’t hurt that he grew up so cute. (7/11/06)

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