page_title: Moneyball (film)
section_title: Critical response
hierarchical_section_title: Moneyball (film) / Release / Critical response
caption_attribution_description: English: Brad Pitt at the premiere of "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" - Photo by Glenn Francis of www.PacificProDigital.com
context_page_description: Moneyball is a 2011 American biographical sports drama film directed by Bennett Miller and written by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. The film is based on Michael Lewis's 2003 nonfiction book of the same name, an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane's attempts to assemble a competitive team.
  In the film, Beane and assistant GM Peter Brand, faced with the franchise's limited budget for players, build a team of undervalued talent by taking a sophisticated sabermetric approach to scouting and analyzing players. Columbia Pictures bought the rights to Lewis's book in 2004, hiring Stan Chervin to write the screenplay. David Frankel was initially set to direct with Steven Zaillian now writing the screenplay, but was soon replaced by Steven Soderbergh, who planned to make the film with a semi-documentary style featuring interviews from real athletes, and having the real players and coach on the team portray themselves. However, prior to its July 2009 filming start, the film was put in turnaround due to creative differences between Soderbergh and Sony over a last-minute script rewrite.
context_section_description: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 260 reviews, with an average rating of 7.97/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Director Bennett Miller, along with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, take a niche subject and turn it into a sharp, funny, and touching portrait worthy of baseball lore." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. The film appeared on 35 critics' top-ten lists for the best films of 2011, with two critics ranking it first, and another ranking it second.
  Roger Ebert, in his four star review, praised the film for its "intelligence and depth", specifically highlighting the screenplay and its "terse, brainy dialogue". Manohla Dargis of The New York Times found Pitt's performance "relaxed yet edgy and sometimes unsettling", and stated she couldn't see anyone but Pitt in the role. Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers also praised Pitt's performance, in addition to Miller's direction and the screenplay, which he referred to as "dynamite". Owen Gleiberman for Entertainment Weekly highlighted Hoffman's performance alongside Pitt and Hill, finding Hoffman "does a character turn that’s as fresh for him as the crew cut that makes him look like a grizzled old-timer". Kirk Honeycutt was complimentary of the comedic chemistry between Pitt and Hill, which prompted Honeycutt to compare the film to The Bad News Bears and Major League. In his review for New York magazine, while reviewing the film and Pitt's performance, David Edelstein found Pitt's performance made the film more focused towards Beane as opposed to the team. Dana Stevens of Slate found the film could be enjoyed by viewers who typically don't like sports movies. Stevens also highlighted Hill's performance, finding the role "gives him the chance to be funny, not by wisecracking broadly but by underreacting".
  In a mixed review written for Slant Magazine, Bill Weber praised Pitt's performance, but found the film formulaic, stating "But true to Hollywood’s tireless efforts to fit square-peg material into roundish genre niches, this wavering, intermittently smart story of daring to think differently flattens its narrative into formula". Weber also felt the audience would endure "tonal whiplash", pointing to the scene of Beane and Brand executing various trades he felt was "played for Laughs", but found "the rhythm isn’t snappy enough to draw laughs". Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle found the film to be filled with compromises, writing "Someone crammed Major League-style sports cliches into a more nuanced story about baseball and progress - and then tried to fit a Brad Pitt star vehicle inside of that. The result is an interesting but frustrating near-miss". Hartlaub also criticized the film's runtime.
  In regards to the film's accuracy, David Haglund of Slate and Jonah Keri of Grantland criticized the Moneyball film and book for excluding the pitchers Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito and position players such as Eric Chavez and Miguel Tejada. These players were discovered via traditional scouting methods, and were key contributors to the success of the 2002 Athletics. Former Oakland A's manager Art Howe has spoken publicly about his disapproval of his portrayal in an interview on Sirius XM. “It is very disappointing to know that you spent seven years in an organization and gave your heart and soul to it and helped them go to the postseason your last three years there and win over 100 games your last two seasons — and this is the way evidently your boss (Beane) feels about you”. Howe also stated producers of the Miller version of the film didn't contact him to consult on his portrayal. Scott Hatteberg also said that Howe was portrayed inaccurately saying: "Art Howe was a huge supporter of mine. I never got the impression from him that I was not his first choice." He mentioned Howe and Beane had a "turbulent relationship". The San Francisco 
caption: Brad Pitt received critical acclaim for his performance as Billy Beane.
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