AVClub: Move over, Rudy. Hit the showers, Brian’s Song. There’s a new tearjerking true story of gridiron triumph, one that combines those male-weepie favorites in a way no focus group could possibly resist. My All American, a football film as calculated as its title, runs through every cliché in the genre playbook. There are big games, bigger comebacks, roaring crowds, and not one, but two climactic, inspirational, halftime locker-room speeches. More crucially, perhaps, there’s also a tragic hero to enshrine, a departed legend of Texas athletics who the film treats with an awe and respect that borders on the Biblical.
