Lowbudget but high quality film about a talented runner in a troubled household who is recruited by the high school coach to run competitively. This film had a lot of things going for it: a great cast, interesting characters and an unobtrusive style (after the first 10 minutes, I forgot I was watching a movie because I was already in the movie). Scenes in school/hanging out and at parties captured the highs and lows of teenage life pretty well, as well as their dysfunctional families. But the bad guys lacked subtlety. The grandfather nearly always was nasty and ferocious; the bully just teased the main character even though he was on the same track team (which after a certain point I find hard to believe). I accept that these characters were flawed and even dangerous, but they didn't have to be that way every moment of the film.
SPOILER ALERT: I appreciated how the protagonist and the coach were more complex charactersnot entirely bad, not entirely good, but one thing stuck out. In one scene, the coach is revealed to have a sexual thing with a student (spied on by the protag's sidekick). We really didn't have to see this; it would have been more effective to present this information indirectly through rumors rather than to show a scene. (That would have given the coach's character even more ambiguity). The real problem with the end is the moral superiority of the protag at the end in his speech to the coach. Yes, it was a sign that the protagonist had grown (I bought that completely), but it turned the coach into the 100% bad guy (when clearly the coach had done a lot of good for the protag). Sexual peccadilloes notwithstanding, I really don't care terribly much that the coach had entirely self-serving motives for helping the boy. (I actually preferred to have the coach's character to be more ambiguous). The key moment in the film is when the audience sees that the protagonist had gotten past the coach's plans and has taken the initiative to map his own life (even when it runs against the direction his mentor has mapped for him). That first act of confident assertion is the moment when we see that the protagonist will manage all right, regardless of the troubles at home. The fact that the coach is a self-interested scumbag (in comparison) is just not that important to the boy's story.
SPOILER ALERT: I appreciated how the protagonist and the coach were more complex charactersnot entirely bad, not entirely good, but one thing stuck out. In one scene, the coach is revealed to have a sexual thing with a student (spied on by the protag's sidekick). We really didn't have to see this; it would have been more effective to present this information indirectly through rumors rather than to show a scene. (That would have given the coach's character even more ambiguity). The real problem with the end is the moral superiority of the protag at the end in his speech to the coach. Yes, it was a sign that the protagonist had grown (I bought that completely), but it turned the coach into the 100% bad guy (when clearly the coach had done a lot of good for the protag). Sexual peccadilloes notwithstanding, I really don't care terribly much that the coach had entirely self-serving motives for helping the boy. (I actually preferred to have the coach's character to be more ambiguous). The key moment in the film is when the audience sees that the protagonist had gotten past the coach's plans and has taken the initiative to map his own life (even when it runs against the direction his mentor has mapped for him). That first act of confident assertion is the moment when we see that the protagonist will manage all right, regardless of the troubles at home. The fact that the coach is a self-interested scumbag (in comparison) is just not that important to the boy's story.