Michael Sheen screams for mercy as an embattled soccer manager Brian Clough.

In the past few years, Michael Sheen has played Tony Blair (three times!), David Frost and now, in The Damned United, football coach Brian Clough, making a habit of portraying hyper-ambitious Brits who are determined to push their luck until it turns bad.

Director Tom Hooper’s film investigates the tumultuous 44-day period in 1974 when Clough assumed the position of manager of the fabled Leeds United club, stepping into the shoes of his hated rival, Don Revie. But it also looks at about a dozen years of backstory that saw Clough use his unending hunger for success and big mouth to go from nobody to somebody to nobody he ever wanted to be.

Sheen is brilliant as a man determined to do great things–and then undo them–and Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney deliver excellent supporting performances, working from an economical, insightful script by Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon). Jimmy Breslin once opined that if you want to tell a great sports story you have to go into the loser’s locker room, and The Damned United does that with distinction.

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