Moneyball

Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill in Moneyball

**** out of ****

Moneyball is a movie that feels so relaxed and flawless. I admit I missed this one in theaters. It was lower on my priority list because the subject didn't interest me. I'm not a sports fan. At the same time I knew that Bennett Miller (Capote) is a good director. Screenwriter Steven Zaillian can romanticize any subject as he did with child chess players in Searching for Bobbie Fischer. Co-screenwriter Aaron Sorkin can write intelligent people with attractive wit. Brad Pitt has a really good talent for picking interesting projects. This was a movie that didn't attract me and yet I knew it had all the artistic and intellectual support to deliver a great product and it did.

Here's a very good review from NPR.

Billy Beane is a very interesting character and this movie treats his true story with a kind of effortless grace. The movie never really tries too hard because the facts are so close to sports-drama escapism, it avoids the glamor most sports movies have. Actually it avoids the amount of game play most sports movies have. This movie is about the thinkers behind the game who dwell in a sterile enclosed environment as they discuss the survival of an underfunded baseball team. Wally Pfister's gloomy cinematography adds an unusual edge to a baseball movie.