comment #1

Breedlove says ...

Sick. Soooo excited. Huge baseball nerd and Pitt fan. Coincidentally, there is a novel coming out this week called THE ART OF FIELDING that is drawing raves and being called maybe the best novel about baseball ever written. Good times to be a baseball fan. And hell, NFL kicks off tonight as well. Yay sports and movies.

comment #2

cinefan says ...

Pitt is having a great year with this film and his superb work in Tree of Life. Giving two strong performances in the same year could help carry him to a Best Actor Oscar for whichever film he ends up being nominated for (similar to how Michael Douglas won Best Actor in '87 for Wall Street when he gave two critically-acclaimed performances that year for Street and Fatal Attraction).

comment #3

Keith Emroll says ...

I'm very encouraged to read Jeff's rave. I've been keen on the film since I first saw the trailer (and this is from someone who can't stand Jonah Hill as an actor). As a longtime fan of Sorkin's TV show "Sports Night," I am not surprised to hear that it works, and that it's drawing comparisons to The Social Network. "Sports Night" was a great example of a sports show that wasn't about sports, but there's no mistaking that Sorkin knows his sports, too. So it sounds like a great fit for him.

On a slightly unrelated note, it's shaping up to be a conflicting season for me. Between seeing this despite Jonah Hill's presence, and seriously considering seeing 50/50 to support a Joseph Gordon-Levitt vehicle despite the equally off-putting presence of Seth Rogen, I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it.

Regardless, Moneyball sounds like it's going to be an excellent experience. Can't wait.

comment #4

Mark says ...

Leo will be a non-factor in this race. He could use a Moneyball type movie soon...

comment #5

corey3rd says ...

This is an HBO movie. I just can't feel the urge to leave the house, fight for a parking space, pay $12 and spend 2 hours in a dark room so I can see how the Oakland As became a team that didn't win it all. This is a team that is now being readied to move out of Oakland.

It'll go on the Netflix queue.

comment #6

BobbyLupo says ...

The problem with either Pitt or Clooney winning is that there's no surprise to the fact that they can make those performances work. If the Academy likes it, I could see Hill getting the supporting trophy, because a strong performance from him in a movie like this actually would be a surprise, and "surprise" is a big part of winning an Oscar.

comment #7

bill weber says ...

cory3rd, you know "how" teams win it all in the baseball postseason? Random variance, also known as luck. (Beane: "My shit doesn't work in the playoffs.")

I'm sure they'll be a dozen sports fantasies in theaters next year for you to run to.

comment #8

littlebigman says ...

yup Yup Yup. Everything Jeff says is right on. I think the film itself will be a nominee

comment #9

Krazy Eyes says ...

Nice write-up.

How do you think this compares with what Soderbergh would have done with the material?

comment #10

Ray DeRousse says ...

Since I'm from St. Louis, baseball is huge for me. I've been panting for a film like this ... I sure hope it lives up to the hype.

I'm a huge believer in things like momentum and ebb/flow and all the intangible energies that permeate a game like baseball. I'm pleasantly surprised that this film is going in that kind of direction, though, since I thought it was mostly about number-crunchers.

Great review, Jeff!

comment #11

DiscoNap says ...

corey3rd, an HBO movie just won Best Picture.

comment #12

actionman says ...

went to an advance screening last night but it was packed and the only seats were solo seats (was with wife) in the 1st row

gonna try again next wed at a diff early screening...sounds AMAZING...

comment #13

Patko says ...

Can't wait until this movie will be released in Europe!

Must be great with Brad.

aandelen-koersen

comment #14

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Wells to Corey: Could your thought be any more primitive? Lack of the usual manipulative heart-soaring sports moments = an HBO film? You're not hearing what I wrote. You're not letting it in.

comment #15

actionman says ...

and jeff -- dont remember, but did you see/enjoy/respect Cyrus? Hill was BRILLIANT in that film.

comment #16

nodirectionhome says ...

Is Jonah Hill a major part in this movie or an intersperced walk on role. Would love to see it another great Pitt performance but Jonah Hill turned me off from this movie once I saw he was involved.

comment #17

Chase Kahn says ...

I'm interested in how the film portrays the inevitable downfall of the Moneyball system. As corey said, that method has pretty much been eradicated and the A's are back to their perpetual no-budget, bad news bears ineptitude.

comment #18

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Hill's role is second to Pitt's. He's totally fine.

comment #19

rick blaine says ...

Sounds terrific. Just concerned that to enjoy this film on a similarly enthusiastic level you need to have some rudimentary knowledge of the game itself. Which I and most Europeans don't. Throw in this "saber-metrics" stuff and we're really out of the loop. Still looking forward to it, though. The Natural is a film I never get tired of watching.

comment #20

MikeSchaeferSF says ...

I liked Crazy, Stupid, Love and hated Cyrus but I can't wait to see this.

comment #21

bill weber says ...

Chase, the "Moneyball system" has been nearly universally adapted by MLB teams. And it works best for the Yankees and Red Sox, because they have the most money.

comment #22

Ray DeRousse says ...

The Moneyball system is definitely NOT out of baseball. It's simply been integrated into the pre-existing system. Sabermetrics certainly have their place in baseball, and any GM that refuses to use them in some capacity is committing suicide.

comment #23

Manitoba says ...

Entertainment Weekly's Fall Movie Preview (August19/26,2011 ) has a great page on how hard it was to get Michael Lewis' 2003 non-fiction book to the screen.
It quotes Lewis as saying "Sure, I'll sell you the rights. I just don't know how you're going to make a movie out of it."
Pitt is given credit for keeping the project alive after Sony pulled the plug on a June 2009 start.
A quote from the Entertainment Weekly piece: "It just spoke to me on so many levels," Pitt says of the much-delayed project. "I just couldn't let it go."
One of the directors who came and went was David Frankel who left to pursue the Steve Martin-Owen Wilson-Jack Black comedy "The Big Year" featured earlier this week in Hollywood Elsewhere.

comment #24

actionlover says ...

Hey, Ray! (I am also a fellow former St. Louisan and HUGE Cardinals/baseball fan)

I can't wait to see this film and Jeffrey's review has me pumped. I'm still surprised it got made though, at least as a theatrical release. It does seem like an HBO movie. That is NOT a knock on it. (especially since HBO has so many great films)

I'm just not sure the audience is really there for this. I hope I'm wrong and just the fact that it's (apparently) really good is enough to get people there, but... I don't know.

It's going to be a real test of Pitt's box office draw.

comment #25

Ray DeRousse says ...

@ actionlover - If you love the Cards, you should stop by my Cardinals site: www.stlcardinalbaseball.com! I'd love to have a voice like yours in the mix!

comment #26

DiscoNap says ...

To borrow Simmons' theory on Theron/Cruise and the Jerry Maguire type role: This is EXACTLY the type of movie that Pitt will win an Oscar for. It's never going to be for the pretty boy bending over backwards with the weird buzz-cut and the googly eyes (as good as he's been in those roles). It's going to be for the calm and confident guy with great hair. Remember his father Redford's only acting nom came for The Sting. Pitt will definitely one of the ones they reward for being himself. It may be a bit soon, but I can see it happening.

comment #27

4th grade army says ...

Goddamn, I'm pumped to see this. As someone who hates baseball and yet has read the script three times, I'm loving that I've only heard great things.

This could be Pitt's Erin Brockvich.

comment #28

Millstream Pigworker says ...

I'm not sure why everybody is talking about baseball here. As Jeff says, that's just the "hook or whatever." Clearly what this film is truly about is pleasing him and winning awards, which as regular HE readers know, is what all films should be about if they want to score some Wells love. My gf hates sports, but when I explain to her that it's not really about baseball, but about seeing Brad Pitt get an Oscar nod and getting revenge on Crazy Stupid Love, I'm sure she'll be racing to get on line!

comment #29

Chase Kahn says ...

Sorry, I worded the incorrectly. Of course the Moneyball theory is practiced in baseball and has really changed the perception of statistics in terms of OBP and Slugging, but specifically referring to the A's of today, it seems as if they've just simply lost it.

Just look at Hideki Matsui and David DeJesus, having uninspired years after signing in the off-season to hit in the middle-of-the-order, signing Rich Harden of all people, etc.

I'm just saying that I hope the film treats the "Moneyball Era" as it relates to the A's as a relic, a thing of the past, because for them, it's as good as gone.

comment #30

The Criterion Guy says ...

Sounds promising. I'll wait for the BD. Done going to the movies.

comment #31

Ray says ...

The reason Moneyball worked for the A's is because they adopted a new idea that no one else was using, allowing them to compete for cheap.

The problem was, Moneyball works EVEN BETTER when you have MONEY, as other teams (like the Red Sox) discovered.

The A's can't compete with sabermetrics because EVERYONE uses sabermetrics now. THATS the tragedy of the story.

Was that reflected in the movie at all? Because to me THATS the dramatic ending to it all: the power of being a visionary, a REVOLUTIONARY, only to have it all coopted with better success by the people who once ridiculed you.

comment #32

MechanicalShark says ...

I was hoping with this review I'd get a sense as to why I should give a shit about the story enough to see it, but I'm still not getting it. Baseball statistics means jack shit to me, so why should I or anyone else without even a passing interest in that care at all?

comment #33

Eloi Wrath says ...

Mechanical Shark, 2010:

"I was hoping with this review I'd get a sense as to why I should give a shit about the story enough to see it, but I'm still not getting it. Facebook means jack shit to me, so why should I or anyone else without even a passing interest in that care at all?"

comment #34

JLC says ...

Yeah, in the end Sabermetrics just show guys like Theo Epstein who they SHOULD be throwing money at, as opposed to the guys they WERE throwing money at.

They work best over the course of a 162 game season where the duration tends to smooth out any statistical anomalies. They're less effective in the playoffs where, as always, good pitching beats good hitting. A hot pitcher over the course of 20 games can pretty much knock Sabermetrics for a loop.

comment #35

Auggie says ...

Manitoba,

If you really believe Frankel left the Moneyball directing gig of his own free will you're not paying close enough attention to the game being played behind the scenes. Pitt came in. Frankel exited soon afterward not only as the director, but as a producer, too. Find out the thing they have in common and do the math. In Hollywood Brad Pitt > David Frankel. The end.

comment #36

goodvibe61 says ...

The thing about the A's though, is that they are NOT done.

As all baseball fans know, the sport is a game of cycles. But there are things that continue to be in the A's favor, particularly the division they reside in, that could keep them in contention for the post season for the foreseeable future.

while it looks like it has become the Rangers time to dominate the AL West, and the Halos will continue to compete, it's not like the A's are in the AL East or anything remotely like that. They continue to look for players that produce their kind of numbers for the best cost possible, and based on their budget the A's, until the last season and a half, have had truly remarkable results based on what they have to work with.

Their ability to find quality young pitching is particularly impressive. The moves they make each year for veteran hitters, like Matsui, those are moves that are erased quickly based on the short term contracts the A's deal with.

Being an Angels fan over the years, the ability of Beane and the A's to compete is one of the most impressive feats I've seen in the entire sport. Almost every year, it gets to be early August or so, you look at the standings, and there are the A's, hovering around .500 or a little better, and you think "man, I don't know ANYBODY on this team and they're still in it!". Beane is a force for them.

Any team can tail off for a year or two. The A's can bounce back if things fall their way. If the proposed realignment occurs, and there are no more divisions, the A's might struggle. But that hasn't happened yet.

And the influence of Beane's philosphies reverberate throughout the sport with great power. Big market teams using the same strategies, loading up on OBP and Slugging guys has turned a franchise like Boston into a certified monster.

comment #37

mybrainismelting says ...

The essence of saber-metrics boils down to things like On-Base Percentage, WHIP and situational hitting statistics (runners in scoring position, 2 out hitting, etc.). The genius of it was that these were well-established stats but they weren't sexy, a la RBIs, HRs and batting avg.

I heard a line once that I think sums it up: Mike Schmidt got paid to hit a lot of home-runs but he's going into the Hall of Fame because of everything else (i.e., all-around hitting stats, Gold Glove 3B).

I loved the book and can't wait for this and the reason I find it so fascinating is that they really didn't invent anything per se, but simply took data that had been available to everyone for nearly 100 years and crunched it into new paradigms with great success.

And it didn't matter that they didn't "win it all." Only one team does but the success rebirthed a once great franchise and as others have pointed out, induced an entire new way of player personnel strategy into the game. I am a diehard Red Sox fan and they openly embraced Beane's stat-geek philosophy into 2 World Series in three years after nearly a century or heartbreak and futility. Absolutely "moneyball" is still with us - so much so that Red Sox even hired stat maestro Bill James.

Cannot WAIT for this movie.

comment #38

Robert Cashill says ...

How many sports movies are actually about the sport? The best ones are about the competitive spirit, emotions, the stuff of life as it's bound up in the contest. Otherwise you're just watching a game.

comment #39

corey3rd says ...

"Lack of the usual manipulative heart-soaring sports moments = an HBO film?"

No. that defines the Cleveland Browns season highlight on the NFL Network.

HBO sports documentaries are more compelling than most of the 30 By 30 ESPN specials outside. So it's not a complete slap in the face to this production, it's just that at this moment, I don't feel compelled to make an effort to see this with a pack of strangers ready to ewww and ahhhhh over fricking stat math.

Right now it's being sold to me as Gruff coach, nerdy geek, enterprising executive with indifferent fans. It's like a thinking Man's Slapshot without the Hanson Brothers. They didn't win it all. And we're on the cusp of the A's leaving Oakland thanks to Bud Selig's Frat Brother owner. This isn't Bull Durham.

besides Moneyball, Oakland was also the birthplace of Roid Ball with the Bash Brothers shooting each other in the ass with needles after their home run trots.

comment #40

Telemachos says ...

People associate "moneyball" with advanced statistics and sabermetrics, but really, it's more about looking for the inefficiencies in a system and exploiting them, looking for what's undervalued and stocking up on those assets. In the early 2000s, sabermetrics was undervalued and so Beane was able to capitalize on that before anyone else. Now sabermetrics is everywhere and he's had to look for other undervalued metrics (defense, relief pitching, etc) to mixed success.

But the great irony of the story is that baseball, a sport which treasures statistics more than any other, collectively refused to embrace new, more accurate statistics until someone with nothing to lose tried them out... and now the entire sport embraces them.

comment #41

MilkMan says ...

They can gussy up this movie all they want, but it's still about jack shit. Baseball is for old farty white dudes and their sons, who have been forced to love it. Might as well make a movie about how Burger King managed to streamline their business operations and become the #2 fast food restaurant in the world. Starring Chris Pine as the executive who convinced management to flame broil. Thrilling stuff.

comment #42

ThriceDamned says ...

I thought I wanted to see it, but Milkman has now convinced me otherwise.

comment #43

Krillian says ...

"I've got it! What if we DIDN'T cook the pizza?"

Ben Affleck
is
PAPA MURPHY

Coming this fall.

I'm sold by this: "Plus it's elevated all along by killer-level Steve Zallian-meets-Aaron Sorkin dialogue. Did I mention Pitt is great in it?" Will see it in theaters.

comment #44

mike says ...

I don't feel compelled to make an effort to see this with a pack of strangers ready to ewww and ahhhhh over fricking stat math.The genius of it was that these were well-established stats but they weren't sexy, a la RBIs, HRs and batting avg.

comment #45

corey3rd says ...

non-sexy stats. that's getting my ass off the sofa and down the multiplex.

It's Beautiful Mind for Jocks.

Is this in 3-D?

comment #46

Krillian says ...

It just hit me. Didn't Little Big League have a similar plot?

comment #47

The Criterion Guy says ...

Damn, MilkMan kicks so much ass with just a simple, great, brilliant post. As I said, I'll catch it on BD through redbox when it comes out. So through with fighting traffic and all those cocksuckers on their fucking phones. Fuck going to the movies.

comment #48

Jeffrey says ...

Haha, ok milkman, I lost some of my exitement...
Gonna wacht it anyway, just in case that...

comment #49

Brian Slots says ...

Brad Pitt's performance in the movie is certainly worth a mention. But is it in the same league as George Clooney or Leo? I do not think so. Nevertheless, the movie did hit plenty of right notes, and fans of baseball would really enjoy it.

comment #50

alberto783 says ...

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comment #51

rick says ...

i am a fan of brad pitt. he is a good actor. and this movie, moneyball, i think i found it very interesting movie.. nice info and thanks.. Health Insurance Travel Fashion

comment #52

sepeda motor injeksi irit harga terbaik cuma honda says ...

i like yhis movies
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