Moneyball (2011)

MONEYBALL  (2011)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Bennett Miller
    Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman,
    Robin Wright, Chris Pratt, Stephen Bishop
This is like baseball's version of "The Social Network", about how a failed ballplayer named Billy Beane changed the game, or tried to, as general manager of the Oakland Athletics. It's not about the game played on the diamond as much as the game played away from it, in offices and on computers and over the phone. The A's were (and are) a small-market team, and what Beane did to make them competitive was to use statistical analysis to evaluate players and calculate their value on the field and in trades. Brad Pitt plays Beane with movie-star ease and an ever-ready spit cup. (Beane chews.) Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the A's crotchety, old-school manager, Art Howe. Jonah Hill plays the fresh-faced econ grad who runs the spread sheets and crunches the numbers. It can be weird to find yourself sympathizing with the guys who get paid to reduce men to their on-base percentages and walk-to-strikeout ratios. But that's the way the game is played these days, and Billy Beane, who still hasn't won a World Series with the A's, had a lot to do with that.