For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - Moneyball
The Impression:
It’s no wonder this film has been kicking around the
first-rate director pool for going on three years now,
Michael Lewis’ non-fiction account of Oakland A’s General
Manager Billy Beane’s experiment with statistical baseball
is a riveting read but for a select group of stat-crunching
sports nerds. Soderbergh is just weird enough to have turned
it on its head, but can Capote helmer Bennet Miller
bring a similar take to the tale?
The Reality:
Bennett Miller’s filmography is rife with internally
tormented geniuses. Tim "Speed" Levitch and Truman Capote
are both insanely talented individuals fighting with the
torments of their past and the oncoming crush of the future.
Brad Pitt’s Billy Beane plays nicely with these fellows. A
one-time first round draft pick who was unable to make
anything of his playing career, Beane became a scout and
then eventually the general manager of the economically
challenged Oakland A's. As Moneyball starts the A’s
are limping out of a 102 win season, gutted by free agent
losses and struggling to figure out a way to be relevant in
the coming season. Enter Paul Brandt (Jonah Hill), a student
of sabremetrics who reinvents the team under the auspices of
statistical reasoning. Synopsis stated though, this is a
film that uses baseball only as a sandbox. The opening of
Billy Beane is the film’s true subject and Bennett Miller,
Aaron Sorkin and Brad Pitt do an amazing job of bringing
that vision to the screen. Pitt’s portrayal is of a
charming, rash, exceptionally talented individual who needs
to make amends for his poor decisions in life. He’s obsessed
with fixing not only his team, but the egregious class
differences of professional baseball. At the heart of the
film isn’t Beane’s managerial style though, instead its
about a man who has for most of his life hid behind the
tragic moments of his life. Baseball is the cure for Billy
Beane, and Moneyball tracks his recovery.
Aaron Sorkin’s script is just the right amount of fast
talking Sorkin-speak, heart-felt moments, and ball-busting
baseball talk for it to feel appropriately sports-film-like
but still have a glistening edge. The true star of the movie
though is Bennet Miller, who, with a masterful camera,
tracks in on Brad Pitt’s increasingly craggy face, catching
every up and down of one of the true geniuses of baseball’s
oncoming arrival.
The Lesson:
Baseball fan or not, this is a great film.
- Noah Sanders
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