Just perfect...

Excellent but underrated film

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Although I routinely read the user reviews for shows and movies, I have never written one. After reading some of the reviews of this sports documentary I felt compelled to make a comment. :Last Chance U" provides great insight to how life is at Community College and the athletes in the sports programs. As a life long football love the series didn't catch my interest right away and I really regret that fact, because its an awesome show. The student athlete stories are told with great detail and the directors add just the right amount of game action for balance. My concern with the comments about the players seem stereotypical. Seems some people really do not understand these players circumstances even after watching the show. A lazy student is not the same as one that is ill equipped as a product of a poor educational system. Some have no idea how to study and have not ever learned study skills. Many students simply are not prepared for college after graduating from high school. Brittany Waggoner makes the same assessment after leaving the show that this problem is prevalent and not confined to Mississippi. I also noticed that she didnt understand why some of the players would basically give up and leave. The feeling of being overwhelmed and behind with trying to catch up is stressful. Many students leave college but their experiences are based on harsh realities that must be dealt with in a caring manner. She does come across and genuinely caring for the students but fails to identify what life is really like for them. I love the show and look forward to watching more seasons !!

Head coach in first season muses on taking his daughter out to kill a deer - he's a very white guy, big, is a total pussycat to his family. Most of the players come from truly awful home conditions, almost all are African American, some will make it to the "show" most won't, virtually none of the students have any real school skills and from what the documentary shows in season 1, for the most part , there is very little practical training for school given at the college, there could be for all I know, but it wasn't shown. The large elephant in the room is the plain fact that this is a business for the local junior college, where most of the people in charge are white and most of the athlete/students/gladiators are black. We feel for the kids, as we should, but most of the time, hard questions aren't really asked. Why do we have this infernal mix of education and athletics with so much of a schools resources going to athletics. It seems like the college has become a half way house/purgatory for wayward athletes rather than an actual college, a microcosm of the general question of how pro football and basketball essentially uses college as a mostly free farm system for the pros and the colleges make bank off major athletic programs that rarely, if ever, filter back into academic needs. The one true moment, which pretty much made the first season, was the fight in the last game where the head coach called the players thugs, the players revolted, as they should have, they got very eloquent very fast in articulating their rage at this unjust outburst and the betrayal it betokens. This was very hard to walk back, and the second season starts with the pall of this acting out hanging over everything. Situating the main room of the movie in the academic coordinator's office is an interesting choice, although it seems like she is there to get these kids educated, she's really there to make sure, to the extent that it's possible, that the kids stay eligible to graduate and get recruited, ( for those lucky enough to have the skills). Most of the kids realize this, most are anything but stupid, no matter their school skills. It's a strange setting, we're kind of witness to something truly gut wrenching, a slow motion train wreck that excruciatingly examines, perhaps without meaning to, the hollowness of the "American Dream." This may be one of the most subversive documentaries produced in years.

Review of the first few episodes of Season 2I really enjoy this series, I really do. However the atrociously poor grammar, and the foul language used by the players and coaches at EMCC is a disgrace. I think the football coaches have a responsibility to help prepare these young men not only for a possible future in football but in life as they go forward. Why the macho need for all the cursing and swearing? The education system I came from would never allow for such poor grammar and foul language to be spoken. But then again winning it seems is all that matters - right? I still think this is a great series otherwise.

If you like sports documentaries, you are going to love this series. Most people are hesitant to go into a documentary not knowing the subjects, but the filmmakers do a great job introducing you to what you need to know right away. Overall, this a great documentary that is very well put together, but the subjects can certainly aggravate you.East Mississippi Community College, which you have probably never heard of, is the focus of this documentary. The head coach obviously gets a lot of air time, as well as some of the star players (a few quarterbacks and some other intriguing characters, of course) and their academic adviser. There is no real "star" of the documentary, but the person most people rooting for is that academic adviser, Brittany Wagner. She is the only character who seems to fully understand her role at the college and give her best effort in a meaningful way.The head coach, Buddy Stephens, is like a combination of every negative stereotype of head football coaches. He is loud, overweight, aggressive, mean, and unable or unwilling to understand that kids make mistakes on the football field. In one instance, he reams out a player for missing a block, reams him out some more, then comes back for a third reaming and pushes the kid. The kid says to the coach that he didn't need to push him, which makes Coach Stephens bench him for the rest of the game. Coach Stephens is your classic bully football coach who sees no problem is publicly humiliating his players for even the most minor of offenses.Of course there are players on the team who are highlighted as well. All have a different story that lead them to a community college, and seem to really have the same goal in mind: getting out of there to someplace better. Skipping classes and not listening are recurring themes. Some players say they are all about the team, but do not sound genuine about it. Overall they want to win, of course, but seem more interested in where that winning will take them.The cinematography is beautiful. The setup and layout are beautiful. These filmmakers really know what they are doing. If you love sports and are interested in how athletics have affect human emotions, this series is highly recommended.