'Moneyball' at Marshall Cinema

One of the year's best movies opens at Marshall Cinema tomorrow. I cannot recommend this movie enough. It's one of the best sports movies to come along in decades. It tells the story of the 2002 Oakland A's, a bottom of the heap Major League ball club that doesn't have the money to bolster their roster like the big hitters, New York or Boston. General Manager Billy Beane, a former pro-baller, and his assistant manager, Peter Brand, take a new approach to recruiting by using a computer program to tell them who the most under utilized talents in the league are. In the course of just one season they manager to bring the A's the most unlikely post season spot of the year. The key game in the movie is their record-breaking 20th win in a row against our own Kansas City Royals, who nearly rallied back from an 11-point deficit.

Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill play Beane and Brand respectively, with Hill turning in one of the best supporting performances of the year. The script is one of the best sports screenplays ever, by Oscar-winning writers Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, based on the best-selling book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" by Michael Lewis. Bennett Miller's even handed direction makes this one of the surprise masterpieces of the year. This one will be up for a handful of awards comes Oscar time. See it while it's in Marshall, so you won't be wondering what you missed out on when the Oscars are announced.

Read my original review here.