It's a rare thing to see an American sports movie that manages to body swerve the usual triumph-in-the-face-of-adversity clichés. This manages it. Most of the time.

The Permian Panthers - teenage high school footballers in the West Texas town of Odessa - are much more than just the local college side.

In the dusty oil fields of America's back of beyond, the weekly game represents the one thing that unifies a community whose best days are behind it.

It also offers 17-year-olds on the verge of leaving college the one chance to make it out of a life of drudgery and escape from their dying hometown.

Eschewing traditional narrative, director Peter Berg tells their story with an impressive economy without falling into the usual pitfalls of glib characterisation.

There's Boobie Miles (Luke), the all-star running back whose dreams are crushed by a knee injury and Mike Winchell (Black), the insecure quarterback whose first loyalty lies with his chronically ill mother.

Then there's the self-destructive tailback whose spirit-fuelled competitive dad gaffer-tapes the ball to his fumble-fingers.

Running the show is coach Gary Gaines (Bob Thornton), a hard but essentially decent man whose philosophy is at odds with stereotypical Hollywood fare.

"Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn't let them down," he tells the team. Winning, it seems, is not the be all and end all.

With explosive action sequences (courtesy of Any Give Sunday's Allan Graf), this is a gridiron yarn that fair fizzes along, especially in the finale shot at the 50,000-seater Houston Astrodome.

There's no real parallel in Britain - Brentford's first division run-outs don't have quite the same weight of expectation resting on them - while the American Football Rules don't easily make sense.

But, as they say, it's not the winning but the taking part. And here Friday Night Lights is a clear triumph.

Tim Evans