Jenni uses her Film Degree to do a Review: Moneyball
A couple of years ago I was living in Los Angeles and working in the Hollywood studio system. It was exhilarating and fun to be a part of - but it drained me. It wasn't my dream.
Anyway, since moving back to my home city, Melbourne, I have enjoyed seeing where movies end up from when they were only a twinkle in a producer's eye and a script in a writer's hand back in 2009. It makes me seem extra knowledgeable too.
One of these movies was Moneyball, a film based on the story of baseball team, the Oakland A's, and their 2002 season where the General Manager, Billy Beane turned the team around to become division champions by using a controversial, statistical method.
When I was hanging out on the lowest rung, there were two Aaron Sorkin scripts that had a lot of talk about them - Moneyball and The Social Network. I remember a friend of mine telling me that he had to make copies of The Social Network on red paper because it was so special and confidential.
Now, you may have picked up on something here - The Social Network came out well over a year ago, and has already been through the award mill - picking up a couple golden statuettes on its way through... what the hell happened?
It would seem that Moneyball suffered from some sort of curse. The Social Network was adored and helped along every step of the way, whereas Moneyball couldn't seem to catch a break. First off, Steven Soderbergh was hired to direct and he cast his Ocean's Eleven buddy, Brad Pitt, in the lead role of Billy Beane and got comedian Demetri Martin as the young statistician who helps him change Baseball.
Soderbergh, it should be noted, is a very forward-thinking director. While not all of his movies are great, for film nerds they are always exciting. He is not afraid of risks - for example casting well-known porn star, Sasha Grey, in his film The Girlfriend Experience.
While I respect him for taking chances, this is where it can come back to bite you - he decided to include Bill James (the man who kicked off this change in Baseball statistics) as an animated oracle character that would pop up to help Billy Beane along the way.
The studio no-likey, halted production a couple days before filming began and suddenly Moneyball was dead in the water. It looked like it would never get to the big screen. Everyone was a little shocked and disappointed - is this an omen of the end of cinema days?
But someone wasn't willing to give up - Bennett Miller was slotted into Soderbergh's place, Demetri Martin was replaced with Jonah Hill and animated Bill James was thrown out the window. And now, the film has been nominated for acting, writing and best picture awards at the Oscars - some of which is has a good chance of winning. I guess things worked out for it in the end!
So, Jenni, can we talk about your opinions now? After two years of build up and on-again-off-again hype - did you like the movie?
Well, yeah. It was good. As someone with very little interest in sports (and no interest in baseball) and has the same reaction to statistics as a vampire would to garlic... I found it engaging. It was palatable and well-written - I didn't feel like I was being patronised in order to understand what was going on - and by god, if Brad Pitt is not the most charismatic man on the planet! I throw around the word "charming" a lot, but dangit - this boy's got it!
It is a solid film. I wish it the best, because after all the fuss and setbacks, I'm glad it got made.
Moneyball was directed by Bennett Miller, written by Aaron Zorkin and Steven Zaillan and stars Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.