Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Moneyball
2011
****
Director: Bennett Miller
Cast: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt, Casey Bond, Stephen Bishop, Royce Clayton, David Hutchison, Nick Porrazzo, Robin Wright. Kerris Dorsey

After a disappointing 2001 postseason, Billy Beane, the general manager of Oakland Athletics, loses three of his star players and needs to build a new team on a tight budget. He decides to try a radical approach and hires a new number two who has developed a statistical analysis to uncover undervalued players. The details of baseball are alien to me, but this is nevertheless a very enjoyable drama comedy, with an unusually laid-back and likeable Brad Pitt performance. Like all sports films, this one champions the underdog, but the narrative doesn't adhere to the predictable "first you lose, then you win" formula. The story is about something bigger. Namely, one man's ambition to change the way teams are built. Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin adapted Michael Lewis' 2003 non-fiction book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.