Moneyball

This is sort of about the Oakland A's- and their turn around based on a mathematical formula for hiring players. It stars Brad Pitt- and really, it only stars Brad Pitt- as the general manager, Billy Bean, who used that formula and went on to break some long standing records for wins. The plot is simple. But it is really well written and is dialogue driven. It has the least amount of sports footage that I've ever seen in a sports movie. It's like a more intelligent Jerry Maguire-but  no real romance, no sex, not much cursing and lots of snappy talk. And it is Brad Pitt who carries the entire film. Jonah Hill was cast as the nebbishy apprentice who keeps the stats and knows the theory- but he is, in my opinion, woefully miscast. He looks every bit like a middle-aged lesbian and nothing like a guy who might be a baseball nerd. The farther you get into the film, the more effeminate he looks. I am not at all sure that is what this movie needed. In fact, Pitt is so likeable and so real in this that he almost needed no one else in the cast. I'm not a huge Pitt fan, but I really respect what he has done in this film. It could easily have been one of the worst movies of the year and instead comes through as one of the best.