What Makes "MoneyBall" Great.

One of the better films of the last decade, Moneyball transcends various sports movie tropes and creates an engaging and honest look at modern-day Baseball and its up and down nature, its unfairness, and its beauty. It's a brilliantly done underdog story that hits at all the right places not just because of its triumph, but because of its honesty.

Based on Micheal Lewis's book, The film tells a fictional account of Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and his attempt to put a winning team together after they lose several of their cornerstones in the offseason. Since they are a low market team they obviously don't have the pockets to spend like the Yankees or Red Sox, Billy decides to take a different approach in requiring the necessary talent. With the help of recent Yale Economics graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), they devise a unique system of finding players and winning games based on Sabermetrics and numbers. This helps them require various under-the-radar players who don't necessarily have the talent of some other stars but statistically have value.

Much like how he engrossed us in Zuckerberg's building of Facebook in The Social Network, Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin enthralls us the behind-the-scenes of the day in and day out the business of running a major league baseball club. The breakdown of the various parts of that business is brought to life brilliantly, essentially the up and down roller coaster ride that is the MLB regular season. Billy is forced to deal with constant disagreement within the organization by his scouts, the ownership, and especially from Manager Art Howe (Phillip Seymor Hoffman) who is constantly fighting with Billy over the starting lineup. There is also, of course, the idea that Billy could be fired when the season doesn't start as well as they hope, but Billy holds on to the "trust the process" answer and sure enough results eventually do start to show. The human and emotional core of the film is also done well thanks to director Bennet Miller giving the movie a more slow-burn pace as opposed to other sports films. The scenes with Billy interacting with his daughter are at the heart of this core. Their relationship feels very real and it lets us see Billy as a person rather than someone to point fingers at, which is how people see many GMs, I esspisally love how he has to ensure his daughter that he isn't going to get fired and jokingly tells her to not watch TV or listen to the radio. Another example of human drama is the with player Scott Hatteberg (Chris Prat). One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Billy goes to Scott's house to tell him he will be playing first base, despite his history as a catcher. What really makes this scene is how subtle it is, we see Scout's wife in the kitchen with a pile of bills and Scout in the living room watching TV, clearly worried about how he can provide for his family, we even see he's young daughter come out of bed while discussing the position with Billy. These are brilliant ways the film has you invest in the story by showing us that behind all the spotlights, many of these guys are not this multi-millionaires, but rather guys just hoping to keep a job and provide for their families, Billy even says that it's important to not emotionally connect with the players as they have to be prepared to trade them or even cut them, which would, of course, be harder to do if you actually had a human connection with them.

Moneyball is also a great showcase for Brad Pitt. This just might be Brad Pitt's best performance yet, his classic cool guy demeanor in this film plays beautifully with his portrayal of Billy Beane. Pitt's deadpan and brutally honest delivery combined with his distinct persona and draw makes for a brilliantly subtle performance that I think should have won him the Oscar. Another highlight of the film is Jonah Hill's solid dramatic turn. Hill's portrayal of the shy and insightful Peter Brand makes for a perfect contrast for Pitt's portrayal of Beane. Sorkin's screenplay lets the two play off each other beautifully, which leads to their interactions making for some of the film's many highlights.

Moneyball over its 10 years now of existence has quickly risen up the ranks as one of the greatest sports films ever made and it's well deserved. It's insightful and inspiring without being overly preachy, a flaw that many sports dramas fall victims of. It's a film that I always try to visit at the start of Baseball season because it always ignites my passion for the sport.