Phillip Seymour Hoffman‘s Moneyball performance as Oakland A’s manager Art Howe is a hard-cut diamond type of deal. It’s perfectly measured and shaped and, for me, hilarious. The performance is all about Howe’s loathing and contempt and mistrust of Brad Pitt‘s Billy Beane, and the calmly stubborn way he keeps saying “um, nope,” “I don’t buy that” and “sorry but you’re living on another fucking planet.”
I absolutely worship the way Hoffman plays the above scene with Pitt and Jonah Hill. Pitt sticks his head in and says “Art, got a minute?” Hoffman glares at Pitt, almost sickened by the sight of him, and waits three seconds before gesturing “I guess I can’t get out of this” with his hands and arms and saying “yah…take a seat.” And then when Pitt drops the bomb about a certain first baseman, Hoffman waits six seconds to respond.
He’s so perfect I can’t stand it. The man has to be considered and tributed as a Best Supporting Actor contender.
I don’t have anything that impassioned or profound to say about Hill, but I love his final line in this clip:
