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proteus-5
Reviews
Possums (1998)
A simple tale of morale over matter
Now here's a true sleeper. Produced by HSX Films (aren't they the fake stock exchange folks?) and hidden on the back shelves of Blockbuster (except in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the nearest big town to Nowata), this turns out to be a charming and disarming tale of the morale of a city unlike anything we've seen since... well, I don't think I've seen anything like it.
True, Nowata's football team in the movie hasn't scored a touchdown in thirteen years, but hope lives in a few of the townsfolk. Hope does not live in the mayor, though, who rallies to have the football team disbanded and the field replaced by a mega-department store. However, in the puritan heart of one man, the announcer for the team, the spirit of the game will not die. Even once the team is laid to rest, he buys radio air time and announces fictitious games. Only this time, the team is a winner.
It is this aspect of the film - that you are what you believe you are - that endears itself to you. True, the dialogue is stilted, the direction is standard, and the acting is hokey, but you can't help but cheer for a bunch of losers who now have an opportunity to prove that they are winners in spirit.