The Biz: Moneyball

So this is going to be a pretty special feature, with this post appearing both here, on Cream City, but also on my baseball blog, Brewing Beerball. Never really though I'd get that fun overlap, but here we are.

So, I really wanted to see this movie. Largly because of my love of baseball and my enjoyment of the book, but also because of the awesome cast and crew that was rounded up for this feature. The director here is Bennett Miller, who isn't the biggest name in the world but did bring us the gem, Capote. Probably the biggest name here is Acadamy Award winner Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the screen play. The book here goes by the same title, and was written (and written well, seriously, read it) by Michael Lewis, who is also the man responsible for the book behind the film Blind Side. On the Cast side we start with Brad Pitt as the main character Billy Beane (the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics). Jonah Hill does a fine job as his assistant, Peter Brand, and Philip Seymour Hoffman supports as the A's Manager, Art Howe.

First, a rant. I'm generally opposed to whatever this trend in film is. I'm going to blame it on the popularity of stuff like "reality" television. This trend is, of course, making movies about current events. Two of the three I will complain about were Lewis', Moneyball and Blind Side. Now this isn't Lewis' fault, as his books were really almost documentary in form, with a fun to follow dialogue by the author. The third is Aaron Sorkin's other work, Social Network. All of these things are still happening... Billy Beane is still the GM of the A's. Mark Zuckerberg is still running Facebook and facing lawsuits. Michael Oher still playing in the NFL. The real problem is that people see these as true things, but they're not, they're fictionalizations. Aaron Sorkin commented on this himself regarding Social Network, that it's not a true story, it's a movie, based on a book, based on a story. People don't know this though and it bothers me. Rant over.

Moneyball follows Billy Beane through a baseball season with him at the helm of the generally broke Oakland A's. He realizes that considering the disparaging amount of resources at the disposal of different teams he must do something different. The movie chronicles what happened to him over the course of this season, and also looks back at Beane's own life.

The story overall, is great. The acting great. The visuals great. I think it does a pretty fine job of energizing what really isn't a whole lot of anything. It's people taking about baseball, and as much as I myself love to do that, making a movie about it doesn't seem entirely intriging. Michael Lewis' book was fun because it described in much more detail the people involved. Some of the players and secondary staff introduced in the movie have entire chapters in the book. So that was handled well. I saw the film with my mother, who is not a sports person. She like it even more than I did. I'll say that's because I happen to know more about baseball than the movie showed, and really the story of Beane is kinda old by now.

All things aside, this is a good "underdog" type story which enlightens the public on a lighten known, truly revolutionizing period in baseball. The film is well made in all regards. I need to give it a 3 out of 4 stars, and I really don't see a reason a person wouldn't at least enjoy watching this.

Side note: The Oakland A's really developed a fantastic run during the years depicted in the film, however, the A's are currently in a rut and have not been a winning organization for some time. The ending of the film shows a brighter outlook, and makes the viewer feel like Beane won, or accomplished something. But really it's an ongoing process. One of the reasons I love baseball.

The Biz: Ides of March

Now here is a big time Hollywood film about a subject that is pretty serious and heavy, and I don't think theres been something of this type, magnitude, and just pure drama out for some time. You couldn't ask for a better cast. Paul Giamatti, George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Thome... Not to mention this was (co)wrote and directed by Clooney himself. Also, on an interesting side note, Leonardo DiCaprio had an executive producer credit...whatever that means.

I haven't seen a movie that was that "sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat" dramatic in I don't know how long. This one was of those films. It follows a high level staffer (Gosling) on a presidential campaign who gets pulled into some serious stuff. This movie isn't really about a transition of a person, I think the timeline for all of that is too short (takes place over a time frame of something like 2 or 3 weeks), but there definitely is a change in Gosling's character over the realization of, well, lots of things. My only real issue with the story is that I feel that a person who is supposedly as good at his job as Gosling's character is probably should have seen some of these things coming.

Acting is top notch, overall the script is good. The visuals are pretty nice, with a generally dark tone that adds to the tense atmosphere. If you have ever worked in politics this is probably a film for you. Perhaps if you're a top level guy things in Ides will just seem silly, but me personally, whose worked some campaigns and lived in DC, I'm pretty sure I got some jokes that others didn't, such as repeated references to going back and working on K street, which for those of you who don't know is a main drag in downtown Washington DC.

I give this 3.5 out of 4 stars. A really must see for anyone who can appreciate a drama.

Also, what portion of people do you think who saw this film even know what happend on the Ides of March? Et tu Brute?



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The Biz: Star Trek

I'm going to make this one quick. I enjoyed this film. I was extremely hesitant coming into this, as I felt they would go against what Star Trek always was. Now I'm hardly a Treky, but I've seen the films and enjoyed them, and I actually thought this was not too out of line. Probably more like the Picard Series, but along the lines of something acceptable. Some things were ridiculous and probably didn't really make sense, but oh well.

Acting was meh, passable, but I generally liked the casting. I won't go on too much more, it was a Star Trek film, and that is about as good of a review as I can give it. For those of you just into actiony stuff, this should pass.

I'll give it a 2.5 of 4. A good enjoyable watch, not embarrassing to its long and storied franchise.