Movie review: ‘Moneyball’

FloridaGator80
A photograph from the movie “Moneyball.”

Six Oscar nominations and “Moneyball” couldn’t wind up a winner for even one! Sad. “Moneyball” is a great motion picture and you’ll truly appreciate the work by the entire cast, headlined by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. However, it just isn’t about the headliners as “Moneyball” offers a stage for amazing performances from a number of supporting actors including Philip Seymour Hoffman. Of course, that’s no surprise given that late actor’s talent, but you will enjoy the work by most of the rest of the supporting cast. In case you didn’t know, “Moneyball” is about baseball and how mathematics changed the game.

‘Moneyball’
(2011; 133 minutes; rated PG-13; directed by Bennett Miller and starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman)

THE GAME OF BASEBALL ISN’T JUST ABOUT PLAYERS

(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion and trivia and the updating of links on May 29, 2026.)

“Moneyball” is simply the best film I’ve ever seen that was nominated for multiple Oscars, but didn’t win a even a single statue. “Moneyball” was nominated for six, but everyone and everything came up short. I believe it is because “Moneyball” is a baseball movie. I guess Hollyweird can’t get behind a movie about baseball that details how a “poor” team could overcome financial constraints to be a contender.

Best yet, “Moneyball” has great headliners in Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, but also a superlative supporting cast headed by Philip Seymour Hoffman (yes, I know everyone expected great things from him in any role). However, while Hoffman is naturally great, so are a bunch more, especially Ken Medlock as angry scout “Grady Fuson,” Chris Pratt as player “Scott Hatteburg” and Kerris Dorsey as Pitt’s daughter “Casey Beane.”

A photograph from the movie “Moneyball.”

BTW … I put quote marks around the names of real people such as Hatteburg because they are, while real people, certainly characters in the film. PS to BTW … “Moneyball” is a “based on” movie and not a documentary. So, it is not completely accurate in details and timeline. Some of the real-life folks didn’t like their portrayal and some pointed to outright changing of facts. Well, “based-on” shouldn’t be confused with “documentary.”

OK, so let me move on from that note …

“Moneyball” is the story about how the Oakland A’s baseball team’s general manager, “William ‘Billy’ Beane” and played by Pitt, has to come up with a way to compete when his team’s budget is so low compared to the rest of major league baseball – about $40 million annually when compared to the $100+ million each year the New York Yankees were spending at the time.

A photograph from the movie “Moneyball.”

Pitt crosses paths with Hill, who plays “Peter Brand” and is a graduate of Yale with a degree in economics. Hill is a big fan of the analytical side of baseball brought to light by the dissection-by-numbers theory published by Bill James. Hill’s take is that a baseball team needs to buy “wins” and not “players” and that there was a championship team Pitt could put together within his budget constraints.

Well, with no other strategy to move forward with, Pitt goes all-in on the theory and hires Hill away from his job as an analyst for the Cleveland Indians. Pitt then makes very few happy in Oakland as he begins to assemble a team using statistics and move away from, for the most part, the traditional scouting strategies.

Although thoroughly a baseball-based film, “Moneyball” is character-driven and has a layered storyline: from going back to Pitt’s youth baseball and signing by the New York Mets to his relationship with his daughter, who lives with his former wife. All of this comes together nicely because of the actors and the screenplay, which allows everyone to show their best.

Some of the film is stereotypical, what with the room full of older scouts where hearing aids outnumber computers and spit-cups are the 2011 version of ash trays for such a meeting. However, the stereotypes don’t linger and they actually work for “Moneyball” (even the joke about Fabio – watch the film and you’ll understand).

Now, here’s a look at your headliners …

  • A photograph from the movie “Moneyball.”

    A two-time Oscar winner and six-time nominee (including two for this one), Pitt simply lives his character of “Billy Beane.” You don’t see Brad on screen, you see “Billy” – or at least what you believe the real person would be if you met him. Pitt’s acting appears so natural that you’d almost have to believe that he is so talented that it doesn’t take much effort. Although he comes off as having a general air of insouciance, there’s always somewhat of a ready-to-burn desire to win and not suffering fools gladly. Further, there’s frequently an undercurrent of menace and potential for violence. Of course, I enjoyed Pitt’s work in the “Ocean’s” franchise with George Clooney and the gang and he was spectacular (obviously) in his best actor-winning role in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” (click here for my review) and won his first statue as best picture co-producer for “12 Years a Slave.” I also enjoyed him in “Killing Them Softly” (click here for my review) and Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds.” He was nominated in “Moneyball” for best actor and best film (as co-producer) and has also been nominated for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “12 Monkeys.” He’s also known for “Fight Club” with Edward Norton, “A River Runs Through It” and the underrated espionage flick “Spy Game” with Robert Redford. Most recently, he was nominated for “F1: The Movie” for best film as one of seven producers (for the “F1” movie, there were also six executive producers; five co-producers; seven “servicing” producers; one “service” producer; five associate producers; and one line producer – do you believe they had enough “producers” to produce that movie 😊).

  • A photograph from the movie “Moneyball.”

    A two-time Oscar nominee and two-time Golden Globe nominee (one each for this one), Hill is just as smooth and convincing as Pitt in his role as an inexperienced baseball executive. Hill, who was also nominated for an Oscar for “The Wolf of Wall Street” in a totally over-the-top performance, plays this one low-key and conveys his character with aplomb. Although as knowledgeable about players as any veteran scout, Hill doesn’t look like it and manages to look awkward just by wearing a baseball cap. Hill has been in the “Jump Street” movie franchise as well as comedies such as “Knocked Up,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (click here to read my review) and “Superbad” as well as the cult fav stoner flick “Grandma’s Boy”(click here to read my review).

… and the cream of the crop of supporting actors …

  • A photograph from the movie “Moneyball.”

    An Oscar winner, three-time nominee and once the perennial actor’s actor, Hoffman played team manager “Art Howe.” In the film (see the real historic context at the end of this review), he’s the anthesis of Bean’s analytics and only changes his style when Pitt trades away a player he wants on the field (and that’s not a factually accurate portrayal of the real person). Hoffman is totally low-key, but completely absorbed in his character. He won his statue for “Capote” and was nominated for “Charlie Wilson’s War” (he should have won – click here to read my review), “Doubt” and “The Master.” He was also a slimy student in “Scent of a Woman” with Al Pacino and was in “The Hunger Games” franchise before his untimely and tragic death at 46 in 2014 of an acute mixed drug interaction.

  • A photograph from the movie “Moneyball.”

    After Pitt, Medlock as “Grady Fuson” brings the most emotion to any character. Medlock plays the longtime veteran scout who is totally dismayed by the analytics and calls Hill’s character “Google Boy” and has his anger boil over. Medlock gives a top-of-resume performance here and is a totally underrated actor from his effort in this one. He has only 40 acting credits over the six decades since his first on a TV show in 1978. Medlock has been in several baseball-themed films including “Brewster’s Millions” with Richard Pryor and “ Baseball” with Tom Selleck as well as a variety of TV shows (including soap opera) and drama such as “Another 48 Hours.”

  • A photograph from the movie “Moneyball.”

    Like other supporting actors, Dorsey gives an understated performance as Pitt’s daughter. She balances showing enough, but not too much emotion in her short time on screen. Still, Dorsey conveys the part like the somewhat veteran she was at the time with 13 acting credits behind her. On her CV, Dorsey has “Just Like Heaven” and “Walk the Line” from her youth, while she’s been on TV shows as diverse as “Monk” and “Scrubs.”

Unfortunately, after the daughter, there’s only one female character of any note: Robin Wright as “Sharon,” who is Pitt’s former wife. However, the character doesn’t get really enough to work with and while Wright is a solid actor, she just doesn’t manage to be able to elevate the character the way others do in this one with the little they all have to work with.

A photograph from the movie “Moneyball.”

In the end, Pitt gets offered, but doesn’t take, the biggest of big-money GM jobs in Boston, but he is pleased with himself and his life. The audience is totally pleased with itself and Beane’s story after “Moneyball” would make a nice sequel film and offer any number of storylines for a wonderful motion picture.

Hmmmm … I guess, given that it would take intelligence and creativity to bring Beane’s post-“Moneyball” life to the big screen, it ain’t gonna happen with the lackluster talent in the entertainment world of today.

“Moneyball” was the No. 44 at the U.S. box office in 2011 with $74.8 million, according to Box Office Mojo. The No. 1 film was “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II” with $381 million and at No. 2 was “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” with $352.3 million. Here are the other films from 2011 that I’ve reviewed for my blog:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Hill’s full birth name is Jonah Hill Feldstein; Wright’s full birth name is Robin Virginia Gayle Wright; and Dorsey’s middle name is Lilla.
  • Because the film’s budget didn’t allow filming at different ballparks across the country, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles was disguised as eight different venues.
  • Pratt was told he was too “fat” when he first auditioned for “Moneyball,” but he worked out and auditioned again and got the part.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “Billy Beane is portrayed as a lonely divorcé. In real life, he had remarried. Scenes were shot with Kathryn Morris as his second wife, Tara. They didn’t make the final cut, though they’re included as Blu-ray extras. Brad Pitt‘s character still wears a wedding ring throughout the film.”
  • Aaron Sorkin did a re-write of the screenplay, but he insisted that the original writer’s name (Steven Zaillian) be kept in the credits because the screenplay was great and didn’t need much work.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “When Steven Soderbergh was still supposed to direct, he cast Brad Pitt and Demetri Martin in the lead roles and had already shot interview scenes with baseball players Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson, and Darryl Strawberry to be included in the film.”
  • To show Hollyweird’s aversion to baseball movies, “Moneyball” was the first baseball-themed flick to get an Oscar nomination as Best Film in 22 years since “Field of Dreams.” In all fairness, I don’t know how many “baseball” flicks deserved to have nominations in those years.
  • Paul Depodesta, who is the real life “Peter Brand,” didn’t want his name used in the film and filmmakers obliged. He did assist in the production of the film.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com (… and sorry this is so long, but it is necessary as context): “The film is notorious for dramatic license versus the real events. Art Howe was actually on board with the Moneyball concept from the beginning, especially after Scott Hatteberg became the regular first baseman. Carlos Pena was not a rookie of the year candidate and didn’t receive that consideration until after he was traded to the Detroit Tigers where his performance vastly improved. The film also did not focus on the fact the Athletics arguably had the best defensive infield in the league, which was helpful considering their three top pitchers heavily relied on groundouts. And while the scouts in the film are made out to be archaic and behind the times, Oakland had one of the best minor league farm systems in the league. And while Boston did use a Moneyball concept to help win the World Series in 2004 and 2007, they still had the second highest payroll in the league behind the New York Yankees, proving Moneyball is good for filling a roster but high paid stars are still key.”

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