This movie is offensive on many levels. The acting and directing makes this movie feel like a straight-to-TV movie. Except I wouldn't deem this movie suitable for a television audience. How tiresome is the theme of movies where the main characters are High Schoolers. The High School children are portrayed as adults ultimately. The movie showcases underage drinking as being normal and acceptable behavior. And it's full of underage High School children engaging in sexual activity. Showing High School children having sex is ultimately child pornography without nudity. These movies about High School kids drinking and having sex are so crude that the fictional High School characters portrayed wouldn't even be allowed to rent this movie themselves in real life. And to top all of this lewd behavior off, the adult main character is some creeper psycho who watches High School football games by himself and then trespasses into the High School to retrieve the names of the boys who didn't make the Varsity team and goes around town stalking them to recruit them onto his fantasy boys football team. I found myself watching this movie from an observational objective viewpoint just to study the type of mainstream Hollwood filth that gets fed into the minds of the masses who are conditioned to perceive what I consider to be filthy smut as normal.

Very credibile and moving performances by David Morse (Gideon), Kelly Lynch (Evangeline) and the central character - Ryan Gosling (Roy). Incredible film footage of Montana and eerie music accentuate the central theme of this movie. Gideon wants to be coach for Roy and his high school football team.Can he be Roy's father figure too?

The Slaughter Rule exceeded my expectations as a small film with huge talent, excellent performances, a superb cast and a compelling, tightly directed story.The Smith Brothers shine in their first film. David Morse and Ryan Gosling give nuanced and sensitive performances. The supporting cast is consistently excellent, especially David Cale and Eddie Spears. This is primarily a male story, but Kelly Lynch and Clea Du Vall give great supporting roles and make you want to see more scenes with them.I cannot express how well done this film is. It is so inspiring to get swept off of your feet by a great film!

This is not a movie that will make one feel warm inside or good about humanity. The motives of the characters, and their actions, are often disturbing. But I found a great deal to appreciate in the effort that the writer and the actors brought to this. Along the lines of "Chuck and Buck" or the "Good Girl" in it's power to stay with you and make you think about people and things you mightnot want to! I saw a film today called "Igby Goes Down" with A list stars and a relatively high budget that was extremely pompous and made no effort tocommunicate. This small film easily outshines it on every level. I grew up in rural South Dakota and Minnesota and football is that serious a business there, and there are as many disturbing elements and people around this "heartland" asanywhere else. Extra thanks to Ryan Gosling (who has been good in everythingso far) David Morse and Clea DuVall for their great efforts here.