This is about as close to an art film as a sports movie can get, but it can barely find the space to do something new between the compulsory sport-movie ingredients: an embattled coach (Billy Bob Thornton); an American football team to shape up (the Permian Panthers, of Odessa, Texas); and a climactic final (the 1988 high school state championship).

The focus is less on macho heroics than masculine frailties, though. Thornton's pep talks sound more like religious sermons, and his holistic "it's not about winning" approach to competitive sport is dangerously un-American. The sport itself, however, is 100% American, and few Brits are likely to prise themselves away from the end of the soccer season to catch it.