I couldn’t wait to see “Moneyball” due to the fact that I am a huge baseball fan and the fact that the film was being directed by Bennett Miller. In case you didn’t know, Miller was the one who directed the 2005 film “Capote”, a film I liked a lot. So upon seeing the picture, all I can say is that it is one of the best sports movies I have seen in a very long time.  Most sports films follow the same formula, but “Moneyball” has a different approach. It is not like those other sports films which have the basic formulaic sports elements. One such element would be the “big game” at the end of the movie. Bennett Miller’s picture doesn’t have that, or the clichés, and it is better a better movie because of that. Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” is a phenomenal and insightful movie full of heart, excitement, a well written script and great performances.

The picture begins with the Oakland Athletics losing their three best players to teams who have bigger budgets and payroll. The A’s don’t have enough money to afford big name players like Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi, and Jason Isringhausen. There general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is forced to get players with the little money they have. He then meets and teams with Yale graduate student named Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). Peter Brand is supposed to be a fictionalized version of the A’s real life assistant general manager Paul DePodesta. He offers Beane a method.  He suggests that instead of drafting players with big power numbers, he should draft players based on how often they get on base.

Beane begins to try and get players based on this method. However, most of the front office staff thinks he is crazy. Even the A’s manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman) doesn’t like the new idea. He likes to do it his way. Beane and Brand’s method are put to the test as the A’s begin the 2002 baseball season.

The two great things I can say about “Moneyball” are the screenplay and the performances. The screenplay is written by Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian. Aaron Sorkin, if you may remember, won an Oscar last year for Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Social Network”.  He may be at the Oscar ceremony again because this screenplay is extremely well written. It is smart and funny and full of comedy and drama. They adapted this story from a book by Michael Lewis called Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. I am sure anyone who was a fan of that book will like this film.

Along with the Screenplay, the three main performances are what make the film shine even more. Philip Seymour Hoffman is good as the A’s manager Art Howe. Even though his screen time is a bit short, he is still memorable because of his performance. The actors who play some of the players give some memorable performances as well. Also, Jonah Hill gives his best performance of his young career. Everyone knows Jonah Hill from his raunchy R-rated comedies that he built his career upon. Films like “Knocked Up”, “Superbad”, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek”. He takes a new and a more dramatic approach in this film and he is great. He doesn’t feel out of place at all, and gives one of the best supporting performances in the film.

However, my biggest praise in the film has to be the performance of Brad Pitt as the A’s general manager Billy Beane. His performance is both charismatic and heartfelt. He believes that his method will work despite the fact that everyone thinks it is a bad method. He tries to be cool about it by being charismatic and confident about it. Then there are the scenes that are more filled with drama and this makes the film have more heart and emotion. The scenes I am talking about are when Beane looks back at his life before he was a general manager. He was an excellent baseball player and signed with the New York Mets out of high school. However, he wasn’t the great ballplayer that everyone expected to be. It is during these scenes that bring the film heartfelt emotion, and Pitt brings that through his performance. He does not want to lose, and he is obsessed with winning. We can all feel that through his performance. He is also very good in the scenes with his daughter (Kerris Dorsey). This makes the Beane character more determined to win because he doesn’t want to lose his job. He has very good chemistry with Dorsey and this adds a parallel story with more human emotion to the film. Pitt also has very good scenes with Jonah Hill, and they make up the most oddest, but likable buddies in a film this year. All I can say is that Brad Pitt is extremely good in throughout this film.

“Moneyball” is a very good film. I know some people who aren’t baseball fans might not seek this one out, but I feel that this film can be for anyone. The film is really more what happens behind the scenes during the A’s 2002 season. Yes, we do get some time on the field and those scenes are authentic and believable. Even if you know the whole story, you will still get chills. Even I got chills and I knew what was going to happen. Thanks to a great screenplay and well acted performances, Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” is one of the best sports movies of recent times and one of the best films of the year.

****|PG-13|133 Minutes