When you watch enough football movies (like we have this summer), a lot of familiar movements emerge. There is the challenge of balancing the game action with all of the character arcs. There is the stumbling through a romantic subplot that ultimately shows a far more accomplished and emotionally mature female character lessening herself to heal the hardscrabble athlete unable to cope with life off the field. There is the largely terrible live game action, a challenge that few directors have been able to solve.
The weird thing about All The Right Moves is that it fits into the cookie-cutter football movie category, but it also doesn’t.