★★★★½ 

The best sports feature film I’ve watched so far. This is so good on so many levels. The logistics of showing a football match in a movie is so complicated that director Tom Hooper (of Cats fame) decided not to show any in a movie completely revolving around football. It revolves around Brian Clough, the greatest British manager to ever live, but the way it approaches his story is phenomenal. This was before Tom Hooper got Best Picture for a mediocre movie (The King’s Speech) and got a bunch of other Oscars for a bad movie (Les Misrables), so his direction is actually phenomenal. Ben Smithard’s cinematography is perfect as it makes you feel like you are in 1970s England. Micheal Sheen is incredible as we get completely immersed in this larger-than-life character. It’s hard to believe that this is based on reality but it is and it’s fairly accurate. You come for the football story and you stay for the heart and brilliant filmmaking. This is a really gritty and realistic movie. It doesn’t cut corners or sugarcoat the truth. I would definitely suggest this to any football fans, but this also a film that can be watched and appreciated by someone with zero knowledge of football.