If you’ve taken the plunge and decided to spend half your paycheck at the movie theater, head for “Moneyball” and forget everything you’ve previously felt about sports movies. Forget all the times you’ve watched the winning team prevail or cried when the quarterback threw an interception. Forget the good vs. evil inherently intertwined into every over-dramatized, love-of-the-game story.
“Moneyball” moves past the play-by-play of a successful season, team or player, and just shows one man; Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), the general manager for the Oakland A’s. He challenges the roots of baseball’s conventional knowledge and team management when he decides to assemble a team based on computer-generated analysis, a tight budget and more importantly, a skewed perspective of what makes a successful player.
All sports talk aside, this film speaks to anyone with an urge to challenge “the man” or with a desire to redirect the way things are conventionally done. “Moneyball” is a lot less about baseball than it is about competing in a world with an unfair advantage. It is about standing up against the big dogs (even just economically) and creating something new and original out of nothing.
Beane’s unlikely partnership with Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), an Ivy League graduate who introduces Beane to the idea of strategic player-selecting, is the most endearing part of the movie. Together they collect a team of undervalued players based on the relatively minuscule budget they’ve been given. The team is described in the film as an “island of misfit toys.”
Even though you might spend at least half of the movie deciding whether Pitt’s accent came directly out of “Inglourious Basterds” or if he adapted it at all, Pitt’s rugged exterior, cold personality and constant tobacco-filled cheek add to the love/hate nature of his character. Beane asking himself and others multiple times throughout the movie, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?” reiterates the emotion and love which Americans have long felt for the sport. Pitt did an exceptional job playing the part of a washed-up, unsung hero with five o’ clock shadow and a bad attitude.
Although Pitt convincingly guides the plot along, Jonah Hill really steals the show. Going into the film, some expectations for Hill might be low because of his previously one-dimensional nature. His past slapstick comedy is good for a short-lived laugh, but never a lasting theatrical impression. However, Hill’s ability to play an entirely different role than the one he’s previously portrayed was surprising. His character is a scared-stiff, brilliant, inexperienced economist with low self-esteem and big ideas. He played this part so convincingly that the you might feel awkward for him. His humor was dry and subtle, and never once did I feel any low-brow humor shining through.
As far as cinematography goes, the movie is both visually and mentally stimulating. The flashbacks to Beane’s past strengthened Beane’s overall character, but weren’t overbearing throughout the main plot. Real footage and clips from historical games@@http://sabr.org/latest/more-sabr-reviews-moneyball@@, newscasts and interviews were intertwined into the movie, giving an added authenticity. This movie pulled at all aspects of what makes a good film. The characters were complex and endearing, the plot moved forward in a believable and truthful way, and viewers are gently introduced to questions and themes which relate to more than just baseball.
Grade: A-
‘Moneyball’ is about more than baseball
Daily Emerald
September 27, 2011
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