Baseball? Don't even think about it. It's a great insider's view with human drama.

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2012)

Moneyball (2011)
An extremely competent film, with sharp writing and editing, convincing acting, and a great basic story.
That's hardly the words you would use for a great classic like "Citizen Kane" or even "Fight Club." Like that Facebook movie "Social Network," you have here a gripping series of events with a hero and a huge opportunity and the movie makes it pop and crackle--even though on the surface it seems like it couldn't possibly be exciting. I mean, lots of board room or back room conversations, lots of brooding about the future. There isn't even a noticeable romantic line to add that personal layer.
All of this attests to the raw ability of the movie makers, mostly the director and writer.
The director is who, Bennett Miller? A relative outsider with two other movies to his name, I think people are starting to perk up to him. His first movie, "The Cruise," few people have seen, but it shows his hand in its attraction to a true situation with insight into contemporary American culture. (It's free on Netflix right now, if you are open to a kind of straight up black and white documentary.) His second movie, "Capote," takes us into heartland America and shows he can command a more complicated scenario, some high end acting talent, and edgy crime stuff already part of literary lore and make a compelling sometimes brilliant movie. (Part of the brilliance belongs to Philip Seymour Hoffman, frankly, but the movie is handled with unusual intelligence overall.)
So now "Moneyball" with Brad Pitt, who anchors it with yet another confident, believable performance from him. The world of professional baseball is automatically interesting to many people. And so is the idea of a lone renegade bucking the system, any system, and succeeding (or almost succeeding, at least). Then there is the astonishing winning streak that builds in the center of the movie with inevitable drama (like the one used by more than one movie when Joe DiMaggio was his streak decades earlier). This is great stuff, and it's hard to go wrong.
But Miller goes not merely avoid going wrong. He gives this just enough velocity and just enough breathing room to make it fast and comfortable. You inhabit the movie, you root for the heroes, and you feel the situation more than you thought you could, at least on paper.
The other main influence is the writer, or properly writers (two of them), though Steven Zaillian is listed first in the credits. Zaillian has a whole slew of highly regarded films on his resume--Schindler's List, Gangs of New York, the new Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, on and on--and he clearly has given "Moneyball" the slick, smart dialog and story line. But the other writer, for the usual reasons, has gotten the bulk of the attention because (I think) he's been recently associated with "Social Network," and that's Aaron Sorkin. (His one other recent credit is the decent Mike Nichols film, "Charlie Wilson's War." He mostly known for writing much of "West Wing," which is pure television, even if very good television.)
But it boils down to a handful of really talented folk putting together a modestly constructed, very smart and engrossing film about something far more fascinating that you'd have ever dreamed. It won't change your life, but it's a must see kind of movie for a quiet night.