Published via Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

The author of this review lives in country where success in certain sports appears to be the only unquestionable national achievement in past few decades. So, I can very much understand when similar phenomena could be observed in smaller communities, like the one that serves as a setting for Varsity Blues, 1999 drama directed by Brian Robbins. Small West Texas town of West Canaan is place where the lives revolves around American football, namely the local high school team, led by Bud Kilmer (played by Jon Voight), coach that won twenty two regional and two state championships. While attempting to win 23rd championship, Kilmer loses all scruples – he completely disregards players’ injuries and even supplies team with illegal performance-enhancing drugs. This practice leads to his star player Lance Harbor (played by Paul Walker) suffering injury that would force Kilmer to reluctantly find replacement. That replacement is Jonathan “Mox” Moxon (played by James Van Der Beck), replacement quarterback who is actually more of a nerd than a jock and who prefers to find his way to college on academic merit than on sport scholarship. Mox dislikes Kilmer and is opposed to his tyrannical style of team management. In the meantime, he has to deal with some more personal issues. Since he suddenly became town’s main star, he is being romantically pursued by Lance’s girlfriend Darcy Sears (played by Ali Larter), attractive captain of school’s cheerleading squad. This might complicate his life because Lance happens to be his best friend and Lance’s sister Julie (played by Amy Smart) is his girlfriend.

Varsity Blues was produced by MTV and, as such, looks like a product clearly designed for young audience. Apart from “cool” soundtrack, film features main cast made mostly of good looking young actors, that include fashion models like Amy Smart or popular stars of teen-oriented television shows like Dawson Creek. Script writer W. Peter Iliff tries to give some aura of seriousness to the film with couple of “profound” dialogue lines, but the film contains all the expected cliches of Hollywood teen films that involve conflict between nerds and jocks and youthful rebellion. Varsity Blues, unlike most 1990s teen-oriented films, takes the route preferred in 1980s and makes the content more adult, with plenty of obscenities, nudity and toilet humour. At various stages, the script appears to take satirical stab at small town America and the national obsession with sports and this allows the films to slightly rise above its cliches. Director Brian Robbins directs the film well, allowing the audience to meet not only main, but also a large number of supporting characters, which is opportunity for young actors like Ron Lester and Scott Caan (son of much better known Hollywood megastar James Caan) to shine in roles of protagonist’s team mates. Lester would two years later parody his own role while appearing in Not Another Teen Movie. The most formidable acting performance, however, belongs to Jon Voight, veteran star who was, by that time, specialised in roles of villains and whose portrayal of tyrannical coach represents one of the best performances of his career. Despite good performances, Varsity Blues suffers from certain flaws, namely few scenes that appear deliberately over the top and are clearly intended to bring teen audience at the expense of film’s plausability. One example could be the character of high school’s sex education teacher (played by Tonie Perensky) who is later revealed to moonlight as stripper in neighbouring town (although it was more shocking two decades ago than today, when prevalence of TikTok and OnlyFans makes such ocurrences much more plausible). The biggest problem for Varsity Blues is the ending that tries to wrap up the plot too neatly within the constraints of Hollywood cliches. The film nevertheless could be recommended to viewers nostalgic towards late 1990s or willing to accept some Hollywood’s product of that era as “guilty pleasure”.

RATING: 5/10 (++)