Oscar Watch: "Moneyball"
"Moneyball"
Directed by: Bennett Miller
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing
"Moneyball" is a story about baseball, plain and simple, but there's something deeper to it. It's about overcoming odds, and believing in yourself and your ideas despite seemingly insurmountable odds. The story revolves around Billy Beane (Pitt), a former MLB player who fizzled out early on, and became a scout, and now is the general manager for the Oakland Athletics. After a loss against the Yankees, who earn almost 3 times their annual salary, Beane devises a way to maximize the cost-effectiveness of his team, with the assistance of Peter Brand (Hill), a character created for this story, but inspired by a real person. We see the Oakland A's achieve a record-breaking streak, before losing in one of the division games. I also liked how the film ended; he won by changing the game, but never won that last game (yet).
The acting in this film was solid. Pitt played a very believable role as Beane, and while the role didn't require any great emotional range, you really did feel like you were watching a real behind-the-scenes workings of a team, not Brad Pitt. Jonah Hill was similarly good, but not stellar; I think he got the nomination for playing a character so outside his known goofball roles. Sorkin's back for his second go-round in the adapted screenplay category. I don't think his lines were as poppy as they were in "The Social Network," which still wasn't as catchy as Tarantino's dialogue. Nevertheless, I can't judge the adaptation without having read the source material, but I think the AMPAS likes Sorkin. Editing and sound mixing are also difficult categories for me the judge. The film moved at a good pace, and wasn't every really dragged down, for which the editor deserves credit.
Overall, this was an enjoyable film, if not stellar. One thing to its credit is that, despite all the baseball lingo that was above my head, it didn't really lose audienec members like me, because the story was about more than baseball. Also not quite deserving of a best picture nomination, to me. The academy has been pretty odd this year. There really were some deserving films that did not get recognition, but isn't that always the case? At least "Moneyball" was a quality film, unlike "The Tree of Life" and "Extremely Dangerously Loud and Incredibly Extremely Close" or whatever that nonsense was. Maybe next year, the academy will make things exciting by nomination "Lincoln" and "The Dark Knight Rises."
Directed by: Bennett Miller
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing
"Moneyball" is a story about baseball, plain and simple, but there's something deeper to it. It's about overcoming odds, and believing in yourself and your ideas despite seemingly insurmountable odds. The story revolves around Billy Beane (Pitt), a former MLB player who fizzled out early on, and became a scout, and now is the general manager for the Oakland Athletics. After a loss against the Yankees, who earn almost 3 times their annual salary, Beane devises a way to maximize the cost-effectiveness of his team, with the assistance of Peter Brand (Hill), a character created for this story, but inspired by a real person. We see the Oakland A's achieve a record-breaking streak, before losing in one of the division games. I also liked how the film ended; he won by changing the game, but never won that last game (yet).
The acting in this film was solid. Pitt played a very believable role as Beane, and while the role didn't require any great emotional range, you really did feel like you were watching a real behind-the-scenes workings of a team, not Brad Pitt. Jonah Hill was similarly good, but not stellar; I think he got the nomination for playing a character so outside his known goofball roles. Sorkin's back for his second go-round in the adapted screenplay category. I don't think his lines were as poppy as they were in "The Social Network," which still wasn't as catchy as Tarantino's dialogue. Nevertheless, I can't judge the adaptation without having read the source material, but I think the AMPAS likes Sorkin. Editing and sound mixing are also difficult categories for me the judge. The film moved at a good pace, and wasn't every really dragged down, for which the editor deserves credit.
Overall, this was an enjoyable film, if not stellar. One thing to its credit is that, despite all the baseball lingo that was above my head, it didn't really lose audienec members like me, because the story was about more than baseball. Also not quite deserving of a best picture nomination, to me. The academy has been pretty odd this year. There really were some deserving films that did not get recognition, but isn't that always the case? At least "Moneyball" was a quality film, unlike "The Tree of Life" and "Extremely Dangerously Loud and Incredibly Extremely Close" or whatever that nonsense was. Maybe next year, the academy will make things exciting by nomination "Lincoln" and "The Dark Knight Rises."
posted by DarthDooku at
4:11 PM
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