Moneyball (2011): Home Run

Moneyball is about baseball the way The Social Network is about Facebook; which is to say that it's not, not really. The Social Network was actually about Mark Zuckerberg, and the way in which his insecurities, his single-mindedness, his inspiration and his competitive nature combined to produce this remarkable achievement. In much the same way, and with similar success, Moneyball is about Billy Beane, his insecurities, his single-mindedness, his inspiration, and his competive spirit, all of which came together to produce another kind of surprising achievement - the 2002 Oakland A's. Not coincidentally, the screenplays for both movies were written or cowritten by the brilliant Aaron Sorkin (whose other works include The West Wing, A Few Good Men, the American President, and Charlie Wilson's War). There’s big difference here, however: Zuckerberg , as played by Jesse Eisenberg, came across as a brilliant, but very weird, aspergers-ish nerd in The Social Network; on the other hand, Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, is depicted as a heroic good-guy: yes he's a bit quirky, and yes he's brilliant, but he is also amusing, perceptive, rebellious, considerate, athletic and as handsome as Brad Pitt. (The real Billy Beane's pretty nice looking as well, by the way.)

Pitt gives perhaps his greatest performance as Beane, a man with something to prove, who lays it all on the line. He is on the screen virtually all the time in this flick (except for a few on-field baseball moments), sometimes in extreme close-up, and the only disappointment is that when the film is over, he doesn't meet us in the lobby and come home with us. Pitt is so likable, and seems so natural on the silver screen, you hardly notice he's acting. His nuanced performance is reason enough to see this picture.

Jonah Hill plays Beane’s young assistant, Peter Brand, a fictional character loosely based on Beane’s actual assistant at the time, Paul DePodesta, but amalgamating characteristics of other staff members as well. Hill looks nothing like DePodesta, and acts nothing like DePodesta. Doesn't matter. Hill is as terrific playing “Peter Brand”, as Pitt is vis-à-vis Billy Beane. Brand is socially awkward, and an amusing naif in the world of professional athletes. But he loves baseball, and is a student of the game’s statistics, and in particular, of sabermetrics ("the search for objective knowledge about baseball"). He’s a Yale-educated Robin to Pitt’s Batman.

None of this stuff sits well with the old school baseball guys, the tobacco chawin’ scouts, the minor-league coaches and managers, or, for that matter the A’s team manager at the time, Art Howe, convincingly (if inaccurately) played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. These guys evaluate players the old-fashioned way - how theylook, how they swing, their batting average, home runs, catching and throwing and even the quality of their girlfriends or wives. Beane and Brand understand that their team simply can’t compete using the traditional approach – they don’t have the money. They also believe that a good portion of traditional baseball “wisdom” about building a team is horseshit. So by necessity and via creativity, these guys gamble on a different approach, based on a simple logic: How many runs will this player contribute versus that player? After all the team with the most runs (not the sweetest swings) is the team that wins. They focus on players with a high OBP (on base percentage), regardless of batting average, and pitchers that can get opposing batters out in a pinch, regardless of how they look doing it. In seeking a different kind of player, Beane and Brand hope to find “affordable” guys overlooked by the traditionalists running other teams. 5-tool players are expensive, and they don’t always work out so well. Beane knows this from personal experience.

Beane put his plan into effect in 2002. At first, it looked like the skeptics were right. The Athletics got off to an awful start. But then, with some nudging from Brad, um, I mean Billy, things started to turn around, and the rest, as they say, is history. In August 2002 came “The Streak” when the A’s shocked the world (and themselves) and set a major league record by winning 20 games in a row. Even knowing the story in advance, this is thrilling, uplifting stuff. (I especially enjoyed this part, because I was a fan at that time, and was at the ballpark for some of those games.)

But you don’t need to be an A’s fan or even a baseball fan to enjoy this picture. I know this because critics around the country from New York, Boston and Washington, DC to Miami, Chicago and L.A., have lauded Moneyball. Says the New York Post: “A crowd-pleasing baseball movie for people - like me - who don't like baseball movies.” Says The Miami Herald: “The movie is an absolute triumph of culturally relevant filmmaking – a film that will thrill and fascinate sport junkies and non-fans alike. If you like baseball, you will love this movie. If you hate baseball, you will still love this movie.”

Moneyball is based on the excellent book of the same name by Michael Lewis. Lewis was fascinated by the application of economic and statistical analysis to the building of a championship baseball team by Beane and the A's, notwithstanding a team budget that ranked last in the majors, with a player payroll less than a third that of the rival New York Yankees. Moneyball director Bennett Miller wisely homes in on Beane himself, and goes lighter on the economics and the statistical analyses, which, to be honest, would not a good movie make. Good choice.   As another reviewer put it, “Never before have statistics added up to such electrifying entertainment.”

There are some flaws. In emphasizing the Billy Beane strategy, the movie ignores or undervalues some remarkable player contributions to the Athletics brilliant season, such as pitcher Barry Zito's Cy Young Award winning 23 wins, or Miguel Tejada's MVP worthy hitting, fielding and general hustle. But this is not a documentary about the A's, it's a biopic about their amazing general manager.

I'd call it one of the best movies of the year.

In theaters in wide release.