Moneyball

How Can You Not Get Romantic About Baseball?

I first saw Moneyball the afternoon that it opened, at the Rave Cinemas (my very favorite cinema chain, for their excellent picture quality). I loved the film. It was a great experience; I loved Brad Pitt's subtle, un-showy performance, and I loved the highly subtle but effective performance from Jonah Hill. I loved the dialogue. I loved the screenplay. I loved the cinematography. The sound mixing. Just about everything.

I quickly realized this was a film I needed to see again. Perhaps it's a problem with me, but I rarely grasp every aspect and detail of a film upon first viewing. I need re-watches. I greatly enjoy them. They provide me with an alternative perspective on the film. Sometimes, as in the case of The Descendants or The Dark Knight I am absolutely enthralled upon first viewing. And in later viewings, these films decrease in their impact for me. Some films are spellbinding upon first viewing. Whether it be your mood or state of mind, or just the sheer enjoyment of seeing such a film for the first time (as it was for The Dark Knight for me), some films simply need to be re-watched to be properly evaluated.

After my viewing of The Dark Knight, at a midnight screening the night it opened, I turned to my friend and said "Not as good as No Country for Old Men, but better than There Will Be Blood." Essentially, I proclaimed it the second best film I had ever seen. It is not that. Not nearly. Of course, that was early in my film career - I was 18 at the time, had seen few (very few) films, but the adrenaline of seeing The Dark Knight caused an instant reaction where I declared it to be a masterpiece beyond the scope of There Will Be Blood. I reiterate - it is not. It's a flawed, though highly enjoyable, brilliantly acted and directed film.

Enough about all that. I'm 22 now, and four years later, I have seen a great many more films (with many more to still be seen). I will not pretend that I am any film expert - I am 22 years of age, after all. But I have seen a good amount of (what I consider) brilliant films.

Moneyball rests at #4 of my top 10 of 2011. It is Brad Pitt's second best performance, just behind Kalifornia, for which I believe he and Juliette Lewis should have both won Oscars. Pitt gives not a showy performance. He is subtle. He's a real person. A real father. A real person struggling with their place in life. At one point he asks himself "What the hell am I doing?" We've all asked ourselves the same question at some point, at least I have.

The script, co-written by Aaron Sorkin (of the masterpiece The Social Network fame) and Steve Zaillian, is brilliant. It's largely composed of dialogue, but the dialogue shines. The actors bring it to life, and make music on the screen. This isn't a film about baseball. It's a film about the love of baseball. It's a film about the man behind the revolution of baseball, and his partner in crime, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill, in a brilliantly understated, subtle performance).

What I love most about this film is its third act. The Social Network operated the same way. It doesn't build to a showy climax. Sorkin understands the classic structure of film. The Oakland A's make history, and Sorkin focuses on Billy Beane from that point forward.

And the film concludes with perfection; a song by Billy's daughter, that absolutely encapsulates the theme of the film.

This is a masterful film; a film that should have won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (though I do love The Descendants). And it is one of the best films of the decade.

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