Nathan Dorhofer

Varsity Blues is a movie packed with nostalgia for me. Not just because I played football in a small town where High School football has the attention of the town, but the movie takes you back to when you felt like High School was the most important thing. The movie really makes you feel how important football is for the town. So much so that they hired a coach willing to sacrifice his players well being for the win. Mox is shot to the top of the popular list when he becomes starting QB after the star ruins his knee after the team coach "treated" the initial injury in order to keep him on the field. Mox navigates his new position as star QB not just at school, but home with his father's increasing pressure to continue his football career in college when he wants an academic scholarship, not a sports scolorship. Even having to rebuff the girl who comes onto him in nothing but a whipped cream bikini in order to ride the star QB's success out of the small town after graduation. Mox is a surprisingly capable QB, but his constant clashes with the crazy win-at-all-cost coach keep him from playing at his fullest. It's a movie that takes me back to my high school days, where popularity was everything and everyone was worried about what's waiting for them after graduation. Mox, being a surprisingly mature teen, becomes a small towns football teams hero after confronting the coach about his carelessness with the teams health in order to win. There's just something about the hometown, country feel that reminds me of my own time growing up and attending high school in a rural part of my state. The immature and inappropriate antics of teenage seniors is contrasted well with a mature main lead and drastic consiquences that come from the importance the town places on high school football. Some things are clearly exaggerated like Billy-Bob, the defensive lineman, drinking syrup. Or Lance's parents making a billboard of him for their front yard for being the star quarterback. But it's also very realistic with how over the top some people can be from a small, po-dunk town in Texas where football is everything. It accurately captures the type of people you would encounter there, like the not so well off town drunk to the folk who clearly have money but prefer the quietness of rural America. The movie is clearly a child from the early 00's where the pants were baggy and the world was more worried about frosted tips and hair gel than the color of your skin and what that means to everyone else. For an adventure back to your high school days or just a trip back to the 2000's, I recommend Varsity Blues to anyone who wants to recapture that part of your life.

SW:TCW is a masterpiece. It succeeds in every facet where the new movie sequel trilogy fails. THIS is what Star Wars is supposed to be. Characters struggle and grow organically. The drama is fluid and doesn't feel forced or contrived. The story arcs make sense within lore and are completely loyal to the source material. The new lore makes sense and fits along the old organically. This was a story told by people with passion for the story of Anakin Skywalker and Star Wars in general. Its heart breaking to watch the new movies where the writers and directors failed on almost every level when their is content out there that succeeds so spectacularly. In all fairness, I found some arcs in The Clone Wars boring, but I'm sure other people enjoyed them. If you didn't like a particular story, just wait a few episodes as the story continually changes pace, structure, and tone and all done organically. To the creators of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, thank you for delivering such an amazingly crafted piece of art.