Varsity Blues (1999) Reviewed by Larry McGillicuddy 1999
*** (of 4) Directed by Brian Robbins Starring James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight, Paul Walker, Amy Smart, Ali Larter, Ron Lester, Scott Caan
There aren't many things that can match the allure of Friday Night High School Football. Twenty two young men who have been made mythical heroes by their school pouring their guts out in front of the bright lights. Many of them playing for a future, most playing for pride. In small Texas towns like West Canaan, the allure is even greater. The town lives and dies by it's football teams. 1983's All the Right Moves, which instead focused on football in small Pennsylvania steel towns, did a good job of capturing this feeling. Varsity Blues captures this feeling too, but where it fails and All the Right Moves succeeded, is in it's basic human drama.
In the past 30 years, West Canaan head coach Bud Kilmer has won 22 district titles. He plans on doing whatever he can to get that 23rd. Unfortunately, when the teams starting quarterback, a schoolboy legend, goes down with a season ending injury, that title appears to be slipping away. The coach must turn to backup quarterback Jonathan "Mox" Moxon.
Mox doesn't really buy into the sleep, eat, breath football ideals of the town. He's working for a scholarship to Brown university. He's been playing football since he was young, not because he enjoyed it necessarily, but because of the pressure he faced from his father. But when he finally gets his chance to play, things begin to change. Suddenly Mox gets wrapped up in all the hype and glory.
Mox also begins a bitter war with Kilmer, who despite his success, is a mean-spirited sadist. Voight plays this character with snarling, colorful, over the top enthusiasm. Been there, done that. This particular section of the film I did not care for. Kilmer's character is way too one dimensional and the attempt to humanize him comes way too late. The family drama is also poorly played out. Mox's father is as one-dimensional as the coach and his mother is given absolutely nothing to do.
The film also attempts to document the wild behavior of the players, and the extent to which they can get away with anything. It goes way too far over the top here. In one scene, a player steals a cop car and rides around with naked girls in it. In another, the boys go to a strip bar, where they are shocked to discover their sex-ed teacher is a stripper. Neither of these scenes are funny, or beleivable.
Despite all of this, I did enjoy Varsity Blues. Van Der Beek is solid as Mox, able to show his character's admirable traits alongside his flaws, but careful not to overplay either (maybe he should give Voight lessons). Ron Lester has a very good role as Billy Bob, the massively overweight lineman who has been playing football since the pee wee level and wonders if any of it was actually enjoyable. Ali Larter also has a nice role as a cheerleader who comes on to Mox since she has to date the starting quarterback. One scene she finds some very creative use for whip cream in her attempt to win over Mox. Now that WAS funny, if still not beleivable.
Brian Robbins does a surprisingly good job staging the football scenes. Everything is easy to follow. I particularly liked one segment where a breakdown in blocking leads to disaster. I also enjoyed the debate of philosophies (Kilmer's control the clock conservative style versus Mox's five wideout aerial assault ideas). And yes, the film does fall back on the predictable formula of the big game finale. And the final play of the game is set up much earlier in the film, so we know the screenwriters know their Syd Field. These complaints might matter one iota to me if the film wasn't so successful in executing it's formula here. The final game, and the final play, are both very exciting. I guess that's the allure of high school football.
Larry McGillicuddy - The Cinemaniac http://members.xoom.com/lmcgill/movpage.htm
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