Director Bennett Miller opens his behind-the-scenes baseball drama, Moneyball, with a quote from one of the game's all-time greats, Mickey Mantle: "It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life." After reading it, skepticism might take hold and have you asking, "How could this prodigy think that he doesn't know a lot about baseball?" 15 minutes into the film, you'll realize there's a whole other side to America's greatest pastime that has remained unnoticed, even by hard core sports fanatics. Instead of sitting in a stadium eating a Ball Park Frank, you'll be in a movie theater getting acquainted with the curious inner workings of this ageless game.
Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is the general manager of the Oakland Athletics who's at the end of his rope. His team suffers a loss in a 2001 postseason game against the New York Yankees, three of his top players have become free agents due to expired contracts, and he can't afford any good replacements. Beane soon recruits the help of a Yale graduate in economic studies named Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) who has an innovative process on how to find the values in less expensive players that scouts would fail to notice. While attempting to get his team off the ground, Billy also tries to provide for his daughter Casey (Kerris Dorsey) while on a limited budget. As other people working in baseball continue to express their doubts about the future of the Oakland Athletics, Billy will show them how this new system could very well be a game-changer.
Brad Pitt's portrayal of Billy Beane is the high-flying grand slam that helps this film to score its home run. Just like a World Series game, it's exhilarating to watch. The way his character does a balancing act between being a committed coach and an affectionate father speaks a lot about Billy's priorities. One of the finest qualities of his character is that he never mopes around and feels bad about himself for being divorced, and doesn't let it cloud his mind. Billy accepts it and concentrates on the tasks at hand. His life on the field and at home are both in his view, and this translates into Pitt mastering both sides of Billy, making this one of the optimum performances of his still flourishing career.
Jonah Hill acts as Pitt's character's reassurance, promising Billy the benefits of using Peter's way of picking specific players and finding their values that have gone overlooked. His role as Peter is Billy's beginner's-guide to the system that will carry his team further than they would have ever anticipated. Hill still has that timidity in his character that we've seen in some of his other roles; but he keeps his Jonah Hill-isms to a minimum, and still manages to make us laugh on occasions when it's called for. He's just a regular guy who becomes a piece in the changing of this celebrated game.
Of course, the story focuses on the actual baseball games. But that's not entirely what the movie is about. It's about what happens backstage that's the point of intrigue in the film. How we see the science behind the figuring-out of baseball statistics makes this film as much a learning experience as it does a viewing one. Archival footage of past ball games are shown at certain points in Moneyball, and they are used to rich effect. It brings us into realization that in baseball, there is what we see on the field as spectators; but there is also what we don't see that goes on outside of the game.
Steven Zaillian's and Aaron Sorkin's screenplay, based on the 2003 book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis, completely throws you into the sport. I don't watch baseball; but even if you're not a fan of the sport, I can assure you that you won't feel that same lack of interest when you experience this film. In the end, you come out of the theater with a better understanding of the game than you had walking in. It's a sports movie that's both the same as others and different from others. It has the common plotline of the coach striving for the best in his team; but it has the revealing aspect of the statistical method that was used to make a better team. The script doesn't get sidetracked with cheap sentimentality of Billy trying to get back with his wife Tara (Kathryn Morris). In fact, they only have one scene together. The story is all focused on a man trying to support his daughter, guide his team to victory and undertake a dream unfulfilled. So do as the song says, and take yourself out to this ball game.
Final grade: A
Monday, September 26, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Close encounters of the diseased kind
The wondrous thing about cinema is that it can conjure up our wildest dreams on the movie theater canvas. The haunting part of it is that it can also bring us perilously close to our greatest fears. As the rule of thumb would be for the scare factor of film: It's what we can't see that's most frightening. In Steven Soderbergh's epidemic drama Contagion, he unleashes what is invisible to us but what comes into contact with us everyday: germs. They are a living example of size doesn't matter, known to decimate entire civilizations. These micro-dangers prepare for attack once again in this too-close-for-comfort thriller.
When Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns to her Minneapolis suburb after a business trip to Hong Kong, everything seems normal. A couple of days later, her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) has to rush her to the hospital after she suffers a seizure. After she succumbs to the mysterious illness, Mitch must help his family survive a society where chaos is at the threshold. Meanwhile, Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Epidemic Intelligence Service officer Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) try to make necessary precautions to prevent further infection amongst the world's population. At the same time, epidemiologist Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) is sent to Hong Kong to trace the outbreak back to its source. In the background, blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) is trying to gain some information that he believes the government is withholding.
The roles in this film aren't particularly demanding; but having Oscar winners and nominees occupy them give the performances a little something extra and prevent them from being so-so. Each of them knows how much to put into their part, and they don't feel the need to overact, despite being involved in other projects that might have required more work, acting wise.
Some roles, however, have a little more oomph than others in the movie. Matt Damon asserts his character's fatherly approach with tenacity as he tries to protect what's left of his family in a world thrown into a sudden crisis. Jude Law's performance brings to light how the issue of blogging vs. the "dying" print media are portrayed in a situation where everyone is clamoring to hear the truth of what world leaders are doing to help them through a calamity. One minor character goes as far to say that blogging is just "graffiti with punctuation." Law commands his scenes as he inquires the government, particularly in one scene when he faces-off with Laurence Fishburne's character on a news show. It's appropriate that Damon's and Law's roles are the primary two of Contagion, reflecting how the public outside of doctors and the government should either protect their loved ones or ask questions, not loot and cause disorder. Their characters, however, are also prone to some irrational behavior, just like everyone else in a period of bedlam.
Contagion isn't essentially a horror film, but it does have the horror movie aspect for creating the fear of something real. In this case, disease. The film doesn't have the audience shout things like, "Don't go in there!" or "Look out behind you!" Instead, we're influenced to shout, "Don't touch that doorknob!" The close-ups of contaminated surfaces and infected individuals are enough to make you want to shield yourself from people in crowded areas, or wear rubber gloves when shaking someone's hand.
This is the second time that director Soderbergh has collaborated with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns. The first time being two years ago when Burns wrote the screenplay for The Informant!, which Soderbergh helmed as director. Burns's script shifts between several different storylines, which Soderbergh knows how to competently handle, since he directed the multi-story 2000 film, Traffic. With these interlocking accounts, we can see how the public, the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization react to this increasing danger. The situation is exposed on all sides, from the ordinary citizens to the medical professionals. Soderbergh labels the days for us as they go by. For each passing day, we grow increasingly anxious with wondering if a cure will be found before the unknown pathogen claims another million lives.
Contagion will likely make you point it out for being similar to 1995's Outbreak, and it is. But as long as there's a reliable cast and crew behind the project with something novel to mix into the formula, it should still work like an antibody against complete copycatting. If you want to know the effectiveness of the film, I'll tell you this: You might want to refill your Purell bottle more often, just in case.
Final grade: B+
When Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns to her Minneapolis suburb after a business trip to Hong Kong, everything seems normal. A couple of days later, her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) has to rush her to the hospital after she suffers a seizure. After she succumbs to the mysterious illness, Mitch must help his family survive a society where chaos is at the threshold. Meanwhile, Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Epidemic Intelligence Service officer Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) try to make necessary precautions to prevent further infection amongst the world's population. At the same time, epidemiologist Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) is sent to Hong Kong to trace the outbreak back to its source. In the background, blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) is trying to gain some information that he believes the government is withholding.
The roles in this film aren't particularly demanding; but having Oscar winners and nominees occupy them give the performances a little something extra and prevent them from being so-so. Each of them knows how much to put into their part, and they don't feel the need to overact, despite being involved in other projects that might have required more work, acting wise.
Some roles, however, have a little more oomph than others in the movie. Matt Damon asserts his character's fatherly approach with tenacity as he tries to protect what's left of his family in a world thrown into a sudden crisis. Jude Law's performance brings to light how the issue of blogging vs. the "dying" print media are portrayed in a situation where everyone is clamoring to hear the truth of what world leaders are doing to help them through a calamity. One minor character goes as far to say that blogging is just "graffiti with punctuation." Law commands his scenes as he inquires the government, particularly in one scene when he faces-off with Laurence Fishburne's character on a news show. It's appropriate that Damon's and Law's roles are the primary two of Contagion, reflecting how the public outside of doctors and the government should either protect their loved ones or ask questions, not loot and cause disorder. Their characters, however, are also prone to some irrational behavior, just like everyone else in a period of bedlam.
Contagion isn't essentially a horror film, but it does have the horror movie aspect for creating the fear of something real. In this case, disease. The film doesn't have the audience shout things like, "Don't go in there!" or "Look out behind you!" Instead, we're influenced to shout, "Don't touch that doorknob!" The close-ups of contaminated surfaces and infected individuals are enough to make you want to shield yourself from people in crowded areas, or wear rubber gloves when shaking someone's hand.
This is the second time that director Soderbergh has collaborated with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns. The first time being two years ago when Burns wrote the screenplay for The Informant!, which Soderbergh helmed as director. Burns's script shifts between several different storylines, which Soderbergh knows how to competently handle, since he directed the multi-story 2000 film, Traffic. With these interlocking accounts, we can see how the public, the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization react to this increasing danger. The situation is exposed on all sides, from the ordinary citizens to the medical professionals. Soderbergh labels the days for us as they go by. For each passing day, we grow increasingly anxious with wondering if a cure will be found before the unknown pathogen claims another million lives.
Contagion will likely make you point it out for being similar to 1995's Outbreak, and it is. But as long as there's a reliable cast and crew behind the project with something novel to mix into the formula, it should still work like an antibody against complete copycatting. If you want to know the effectiveness of the film, I'll tell you this: You might want to refill your Purell bottle more often, just in case.
Final grade: B+
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)