Moneyball is a 2011 movie starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman — a fictionalized account of the Oakland Athletics’ rebuilding into a dominant team using statistics with a tiny (for baseball) salary budget. It’s based on the 2003 book of the same name by Michael Lewis, and tells the story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics’ rebuild into an amazing team on a tiny (for the MLB) salary budget.
Moneyball is unique as a baseball movie in that it features very little actual baseball; I would estimate there is at most ten minutes of field footage in its two-hour runtime. Instead, most of the movie takes place in the dingy back offices and shabby locker room of the Oakland Coliseum, as Billy Beane and Peter Brand calculate, negotiate, and motivate the team’s way to 103 wins and tying for the all-time win streak of 20 consecutive games.
Review
The movie’s story, which is its strongest feature, is compelling. Billy Beane and Pete Brand are, at least in today’s culture, stock characters: the cocky has-been and the nebbish genius, but Pitt and Hill have the charisma to pull it off, and watching them grow is gratifying. Billy’s internal journey is reflective of the team’s success. He struggles with his relationships: with his daughter, with his coach and other staff, and with his players. Once everything looks like it’s falling apart, he takes a chance, makes a change, and, in spending time with the players to develop them, helps make them into a team that can win 20 consecutive games. Peter doesn’t have much growing to do — he has no personality flaws or ghosts in his past to atone for — but seeing him gain confidence and develop a rapport with Billy as their plan works itself out is still very pleasing.
Another thing of note: the movie, much like Billy, executes the plan almost immediately. Save for one argument session with the scouts and recruiters, the film follows Billy and Pete executing the plan, watching it fail, modifying, and then helping it succeed. A more “traditional” movie would have spent the whole first act debating and complaining, but Moneyball appreciably cuts right to the meat.
Since the film shows so little actual baseball, what it does show of the game is telling. About half of the on-screen baseball is archival footage of the actual 2002 Oakland A’s. When the actors play on-screen, it’s always in close-up — individual actors performing one aspect of baseball: hitting, fielding, or a reaction shot from the dugout. This does two things thematically: it focuses on the player’s single trait, much like the algorithm developed by Pete, and it reinforces that play isn’t the focus of the movie, and that Billy and company can’t experience and influence the game the way the players can. Isolation and distance.
Well, if the cameras don’t film the ball game, what do they film? Primarily, the faces, reactions, and body language of Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. The cinematography is simple, with standard framing and little movement, but it’s the correct choice for the film. A simple shot-reverse shot or a “wide” shot that only captures a small room — they make you feel like you’re personally there with Billy and Pete. Very effective in communicating the interpersonal tension and the relief of triumph.
The other aspects of the film are perfectly serviceable. I mean no disrespect when I say that: this movie is all plot and character, and the only service required of the other elements — score, editing, mixing — is to support them or stay out of their way.
The only major complaint I have is the plot intermissions revolving around Billy’s personal life. He spends time with his daughter from an estranged marriage, and while the scenes are fine, they don’t add much to the plot or character. Their inclusion isn’t a critical error, but they’re fat that could have been trimmed, and they stand out as something slightly out of place.
The Verdict
Moneyball is thoroughly enjoyable for baseball fans, and is detached enough from the game itself to be accessible to an audience without much attachment to the sport. Nothing terribly deep, but that’s not necessary for every movie, and the talent and charisma of Pitt and Hill tie together a great script about a real story.
Score: 8/10
Before you go: if you enjoy Moneyball’s method of telling a sports story through statistics, I have to recommend the YouTube channel Secret Base and their lead writer Jon Bois’ series Dorktown. They produce remarkable documentaries — I recommend their complete history of the Seattle Mariners or pitcher Dave Stieb’s quest for a no-hitter. Bois’ work is incredible, especially the ways he and his co-writers weave a complex, interthreaded narrative where the visuals consist primarily of numbers, graphs, and charts. His work is very funny, and I’m not ashamed to admit the stories he tells have made me tear up more than once.