Continuing the esteemed collaboration of screenwriter Peter Morgan and lead actor/parody of English-ness Michael Sheen (whose partnership has heretofore birthed Oscar contenders The Queen and Frost/Nixon), The Damned United traces some six years in the career of Brian Clough, an obsessive, charismatic, and apparently legendary soccer coach whose reckless ambition and arrogance fuel the film's uniquely hapless arc. Though Sheen's nuanced and nervy Clough deserves most of the glory for keeping the ship afloat, to Morgan's credit the script manages to steer admirably clear of most sports movie clichés. Certainly, The Damned United contains improbable success stories, ragtag misfits, and the inevitable high stakes "Big Game"--but they're all shifted in such a way that the overall tone is less of meteoric group achievement, and more of one man's grand collapse. by Zac Pennington