Moneyball (Review)

You’re right, it is a terrible poster.

Moneyball joins The Social Network and Margin Call as films that try to make the stories behind things I could give two shits about entertaining. More than that it actually manages to be the pick of the three, with the over-rated Social Network bringing up the trail (what do I care about the well written ramblings of anyone on Facebook? By the way, please Like us on Facebook!)

What obstacles did Moneyball have to overcome? Well above all it is set in the world of professional baseball, a sport that is as boring as it is unfairly tilted in favour of the cashed up. More amazing still, is the fact that for most of the film the actual sports scenes are not onscreen, shelved in favour of calculators and equations.

So why the hell did I quite like this? Let’s get back to basics…

Not being a baseball fan at all it is a bit shocking that the sport has no salary cap or level playing field financially, teams with deep pockets simply buy the best talent, leading to a league in which the same four or five franchises are perennially in contention, and poorer teams continually find their talent lured away for bigger bucks.

Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is an ex-major league bust now plying his trade in an administrative capacity with the Oakford Athletics, one of the afore-mentioned minnows. After a wildly successful season for the franchise ends at the hands of one of the wealthy Goliaths, and the off-season finds that the club’s three marquee names are all stolen away to greener pastures, Billy decides that he can no longer compete on a level playing field when the reality is that the field is in fact so unfairly tilted. This leads to Billy thinking outside the box. Becoming proactive rather than reactive. Shaking things up. Ruffling some feathers. Thumbing his nose at the establishment. All the clichés.

After giving the grey-haired traditionalists the metaphorical finger, Billy hires a decidedly non-sporty economist in Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). A young man straight out of college who favours calculators, computer programs and statistics over the thoughts of talent scouts and coaches.

With Brand in tow Billy rebuilds his team from the bottom up with a motley bunch of headcases, losers, past their primes and long term projects, men who all react like they’ve been Punk’d when a MLB General Manager show up on their doorstep with a contract.

(I should pause here to say that yes, Moneyball follows the Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger Major League template EXACTLY. Except for the jokes this could be the dour, more mature remake.)

So after the ex-stripper widow hands her coach the rag-tag bunch of cast-offs and losers the coach reacts unfavourably and decides to hell with her, I’ll do it my way… Whoops, Major League again, I love that movie. Actually that doesn’t matter, just replace ex-stripper with Mr Jolie and Moneyball is the same (I said before EXACTLY!). Coach Art Howe (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a reluctant convert to the moneyball philosophy, in that he disagrees with it entirely, but Billy and Peter forge on regardless, much to the perverse delight of the sports media who label his methods everything short of insane, and the loyal die-hard fans who want his head served on a platter.

Of course we know what happens. We’ve seen Major League after all…

Despite not really being about the sport so much the undisputed highlight is still an extended stretch of wins that the team enjoys,

But again this isn’t as much a film about baseball as it is a film about the politics and stubbornness of baseball. Billy Beane doesn’t even attend the team’s games. I was shocked as to how little communication actually goes on between the various departments, and how some openly loathe others. Real sport should be about camaraderie and uniting as one to overcome odds, then again baseball isn’t a real sport.

As Billy Beane Pitt portrays a man who is very deeply involved in a sport that he perhaps doesn’t always love, and Jonah Hill finds his best role to date as the stat cruncher workaholic Peter Brand, a man who really does love the environment that he doesn’t really belong in, he just looks at it from a different angle.

And when ‘Wild Thing’ blares over the speakers and the crowd erupts the goosebumps return… Major League again.

Final Rating – 8 / 10. The Social Network was about computers and Margin Call Finance. Moneyball is better than both because it is about sport. Sport will always trump computers and finance, even when in truth it is about succeeding in sport; by using computers; to overcome financial restraints.

P.S. If real baseball is full of guys who constantly spit into cups all day, I will NEVER be a convert. That shit is just gross.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
This entry was posted in Film, Movie Reviews, OGR Recommends, Worthwhile Movies. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.