As I have mentioned before, I really dislike sports movies. They’re often the same, with heartwarming and predictable plots – not to mention the fact that whether the underdog team (because it’s always the underdog team) wins or loses, it’s a cliché either way. I know a lot of people who dislike sports movies as much as I do – I don’t think I count a single sports fan among my friends, at least not fanatically so. It is to these people that I highly recommend the film Moneyball.

What makes Moneyball different? Well, it’s not really a sports movie. Baseball may be the backbone for this film, but the meat is much more substantial. Brad Pitt stars as Billy Beane, the manager of the Oakland Athletics, and he is in a difficult situation: his team doesn’t have enough money to hire the best players, and any great players they do acquire are easily bought off by teams with greater financial resources. Then he meets one Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) and hires him as Assistant General Manager to try a truly ballsy undertaking: hiring players based on sabermetrics, which is the study of baseball based purely on statistics. So, yes, it’s more a math movie than a baseball movie.

But don’t let that dissuade you either! The movie works so perfectly due to a killer script by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, The Social Network) and Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List, David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) as well as perfect performances by Pitt and Hill, who both received Oscar nominations for this film. It is a vastly interesting piece of cinematic art, one definitely worth a movie-goer’s time.

Luckily, Moneyball is screening at Iroquois Amphitheater tomorrow, Saturday, at 8:30 pm. Admission is free. The amphitheater is located at 1080 Amphitheater Road in Iroquois Park. Further information can be found at the park’s website.

(Bonus: read my complete review of Moneyball here.)

Image: Internet Movie Database