DVDFile

Sony / 133 Minutes / 2011 / Rated PG-13 / Street Date: January 10, 2012

Bennett Miller's Capote didn't impress me all that much - it seemed like a maudlin, disengaged piece of Oscar bait that was more interested in presenting caricatures of figures from mid-century literary circles than offering a compelling or particularly lucid slice of narrative. But Moneyball feels like a big movie, a film that not only houses a helluva story, but one that is told with a steady, vivid voice that cleanly establishes Miller as one of the more interesting filmmakers on the market today.

In short, Moneyball is the kind of movie that no one dislikes. It's easily approachable, full of beyond-capable performers sinking their teeth into mighty and dramatic roles, and it has a feel of authenticity to it that could maintain the attention of even the most strident baseball bigots in the world. It doesn't offer too much more than its based-on-real-events storyline - Moneyball's dramatic scope lends the movie an inviting simplicity but doesn't deliver any kind of multi-faceted punch - but sometimes it's refreshing to watch Hollywood deliver efficient, zippy filmmaking like Moneyball.

As a lifelong west-coaster, Moneyball played to me like a well-worn newspaper article: In 2002, the Oakland A's baseball franchise - under the watch of general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) - decide to approach their new season with a crazy notion: What if they used their limited financial offerings to do things differently, to cobble together a team in a fashion outside the paradigm norm of MLB normalcy? Relying on the input of Yale grad (and economics whiz) Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), Beane and company take a radical new stance on how 'player value' is assessed, and by using unique and probably-insane mathematical algorithms, they put a ragtag team together. And they start winning.

Moneyball is one of megaplex 2011's most impressive endeavors, a movie that doesn't have any interest in shying away from its broad, big-Hollywood pedigree, instead using Pitt's starpower to inject the film with a bigger-than-life sheen that is all but irresistible. Again, it's not an act of filmmaking hopscotch - Bennett Miller keeps things clean and easy here - but the picture works like gangbusters nevertheless. Go A's!