Moneyball

Baseball is probably my favorite sport, so naturally I love baseball movies.  I blame the trailers for being the reason I didn't want to see Moneyball at first.  For some reason I thought it was about fantasy football.  Yeah.  I don't know. Once I heard it was a baseball film, I was excited to watch it.

Moneyball is the story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), former baseball player and current General Manager of the Oakland A's, and his plan to finally win the World Series.  With the help of his AGM, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill; Superbad, Get Him to the Greek), Beane uses statistical data to put value on players and make a team after losing three of his best players to higher paying teams.  Although his team is filled with underrated baseball players and starts off with a rough season, they go on to win 20 consecutive games only to lose to the Twins during the Elimination round before the World Series.  Beane is tempted to leave the team for a higher paying job with the Boston Red Sox but declines.  Two years later the Red Sox go on to win the World Series due to the same statistical method Beane used, breaking the Curse of the Bambino.

Moneyball was nominated for a total of 6 Oscars; Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Brad Pitt), Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Jonah Hill), and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay).  I don't really care about the other categories, but I do hope Jonah Hill wins for Best Supporting Actor.  This is his first serious role, and he really pulled it off.  Good for him!  This is his first Oscar nomination, and with good reason too.  He proved to other filmmakers that he's not just the token fat, funny guy or a Seth Rogen Jr. (since he's lost weight now too).  He can be serious too.  This was a pretty good film, and we all know that Brad Pitt can act, but viewers saw that Jonah Hill can too.