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Here’s your link for the movie! It’s from a Strange Site, but most internet security experts consider it pretty safe (for streaming; I wouldn’t try downloading). It has no commercials, so no sync issues!
Sync issues are a pain on Movie Nights! Start the show at 7:30!
The movie’s based (kinda) on a 2003 book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by one Michael Lewis (I haven’t read it). Two of Lewis’s other books, The Blind Side and The Big Short, have also been adapted into hit movies, so that guy’s rolling in dough. Good for him, I guess, unless he’s an a-hole, in which case, damn you, Hollywood!
This one has a convoluted production history. Originally hack director David Frankel and sub-hack writer Stan Chervin were set to do it. Then Brad Pitt got interested, although he didn’t like the script. So hit writer Steven Zaillian was hired; that got Pitt to commit. Then, for some reason, the studio brought on director Steven Soderbergh; maybe because Soderbergh had directed Ocean’s 11, which had Brad Pitt in it, and it made tons of money. But Soderbergh’s also the guy who did a 267-minute Che Guevara movie; he’s not somebody you can just tell what to do. Sony tried telling him what to do. It didn’t pan out. The film was shut down a few days before shooting started.
Still, Sony had already paid for the book rights and Pitt’s salary, so they brought in some new people to rethink the movie, director Bennett Miller and prolific writer Aaron Sorkin (kind of like a modern-day Rod Serling, if Serling was a little funnier and a lot less thoughtful). Sorkin and Zaillian hashed out a new script together, which involved sharing ego space, which neither liked doing, but they did it.
You can read all of that in this Hollywood Reporter article by Alex Ben Block. You can also read A.I.-generated garbage posts about the making of Moneyball like this and this and this. What’s “notoriously picky” Moneyball director Bennett Miller working on today? Projects about how intriguing A.I. technology is for artists. So you can ignore anything he ever does ever again.
I don’t like Miller’s other work. I thought his Foxcatcher was shallow, exploitative, and heartless. I felt the same way about his Capote, although Philip Seymour Hoffman was excellent in it. Because he’s just excellent in everything.
Hoffman’s here with Pitt, Jonah Hill, Arliss Howard, the great Robin Wright, and a bunch of actors playing baseball players (or lesser-known baseball players playing wider-known baseball players). Born-in-Minnesota Chris Pratt plays Scott Hatteberg; he had to slim down for the role (and blamed his weight gain on his girlfriend’s cooking). Well, I liked him better when he was chubby-faced.
Was Billy Beane all that bright? After all, during his tenure in Oakland, the A’s never advanced to the ALCS once. But, as gintzer pointed out in a different comment thread, the A’s had several years where they won a ton of games. The ball bounces differently in some best-of-5 playoff series, things might have gone otherwise. So maybe Beane was a rebel genius. (Although I’m not invested in the notion.)
Here’s your link again for the movie! Click your clicks at 7:30!
Here’s the upcoming schedule:
February 20: Back to the Future III (1990)
By request, and because I haven’t seen it since 1990 (when I enjoyed it a lot). Why haven’t I seen it since then? Well, there’s an embarrassing tale… Free on the Strange Site.
February 27: The Stratton Story (1949)
James Stewart plays a pitcher who makes the majors, falls in love, then faces intense obstacles. Haven’t seen it, but it’s based on a true story, which in Hollywood means “100% accurate.” Free on the Strange Site.
March 6: Stop Making Sense (1984)
You may ask yourself: do we have some rock fans, here? We do. And this is one of the very best rock-concert movies. Featuring the Talking Heads and a totally badass touring band. Free on the Strange Site.
March 13: 42 (2013)
I wanna make sure we get this one in, because we started with The Jackie Robinson Story. I might be outta town March 20, and there might be a game March 27 (currently nothing scheduled but you know how Opening Week can go.) Free on the Strange Site.
Running out of time for suggestions this year… but, who knows, maybe we’ll give it a go next year, too? In any case, show starts at 7:30!
