Movie Monday: Moneyball

I love professional sports. I love movies about professional sports. I also love economics and statistics. So Moneyball hit a homerun with me before I even hit play on the Blu-ray.

I convinced my parents to watch it with me. They had zero interest in seeing it, but they both ended up enjoying it. I only add that because I think the film can be enjoyed by people who aren’t as predisposed to like it as I was.

Brad Pitt is great. Jonah Hill is really good (and surprising) in his first role where he’s more of the straight man instead of his usual wacky, funny guy. If I have to fault the movie at all, I will say it drags a bit in the middle. At a certain point, you really want to sock Philip Seymour Hoffman in the face.

But it’s all good. The film is funny, the dynamic between Pitt and Hill is fantastic, the drama of sports plays out well, with the added bonus of stats and theory. And it leaves you feeling good at the end. I’m not opposed to a happy ending.

I like this movie a lot and it’s likely I’ll watch it again at some point. But I’m not sure it’s Best Picture caliber in my mind. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t weigh in on the Best Adapted Screenplay nomination – but it’s got Aaron Sorkin’s trademark zip and zing. Jonah Hill does an admirable job, but is it Oscar worthy? I don’t think so. Maybe the Academy will think differently, but I doubt it. I don’t expect this film to be a big winner come Feb. 26 and that’s okay.

It’s a solid film, but it’s up against some heavy hitters. Baseball pun fully intended, of course.

[NB: I will also say, that if my father ever has an opportunity to earn $12.5 million, he damn well better take it. He can see me later.]

Tags: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Moneyball, Movie Monday, Oscar Nominees, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Reading Wednesday: My Ántonia

Yes, the book title includes an accent on the capital A. And yes, I took pains to make sure that accent was in the title of my post. But no, you won’t be seeing that same accent throughout this post because that’s all the effort you’re going to get out of me, folks. It’s a total pain in the ass to insert the accent mark on my laptop (but not on my desktop for some reason – but then I probably just don’t know what I’m doing).

With that rant out of the way, I read My Antonia by Willa Cather as the February selection for my book club. I was familiar with Willa Cather, of course, but I had never read any of her work. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this, but as several people and websites refer to this novel as a “masterpiece,” I would say the bar was set pretty high.

It’s a good book. I enjoyed it. Is it a great book? Well… maybe.

Cather’s descriptions of the Nebraska prairie are beautiful and should be lifted and included verbatim in promos by the state board of tourism. Her characters are real and flawed and memorable. But this is the anti-Little House on the Prairie book. Parents die and life is hard and everything doesn’t always turn out just fine in the end.

I think the most important thing to remember when reading this book is the use of a first-person narrative in the person of Jim Burden, who is writing the story passed on recollection after many years later. His memory could be flawed and his perception is certainly biased. Later in the novel, Antonia acts in ways that don’t seem to ring true with the portrait Jim paints of her in the beginning. But this is Jim’s Antonia. He remembers her the way he wants to see her, not necessarily as she was.

Tags: books, Jim Burden, My Ántonia, Reading Wednesday, Willa Cather

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tags: NPR, Planet Money, Valentine's Day