Movie review: 'McFarland, USA'

Kevin Costner never met a sports drama he didn’t like.

The genre has been a safe bet for the everyman actor since before I was alive, and it’s an even safer bet for Disney (“Million Dollar Arm,” “Miracle,” “The Rookie”). I imagine Disney has gone so far as to teach mice the mathematical formula for how to build an uplifting sports movie. They love being in first place and know how to get there.

A hearty helping of head and heart makes for a balanced equation and an endearing tale in “McFarland, USA.” Costner plays Jim White, a crusty football coach whose career and family life is dustier than the fields his predominantly Latino neighbors and students wake up to pick at 4:30 a.m. Moving to McFarland, Calif., is a culture shock for White’s family. They’re as comfortable ordering food in an authentic Mexican restaurant as my stomach is after a double punch of a Cheesy Gordita Crunch and a Mountain Dew.

White isn’t thrilled with life in California's Central Valley. There’s a prison next door to where he teaches. A neighbor gifts him a chicken as a housewarming present. It’s 1987. Lowriders blast music in his neighborhood. His family initially fits in at McFarland like a hamburger order on a Taco Tuesday.

But we soon learn that White’s high school students have it rough, too. They pick crops, go to school and pick again at night. By the time you’d be complaining about a bad morning, they’d be several hours into making sure their family can at least have food on the dinner table.

But wouldn’t you know, that sort of work ethic and pain tolerance is the essence of what it takes to excel at cross country running. White scrapes together an inaugural team to compete for the state championship and tip-toes around his team’s adversity before tackling it head on. He even works the field alongside his athletes until his back goes out. Disney has always had a knack for tapping into universal themes. Here we explore the idea of what family really means and just how thin the differences are between the White family and the Latino community. You get hit in the face with it especially hard when a traditional rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” segues into a Spanish guitar version. It was enough to make me envision a bald eagle driving a Ford F-150 with one talon and holding a Mexican flag in the other. Guys, we’re all in this together.