Review of Moneyball (2011) by Adam K — 22 Feb 2015

A beautiful ode to the power of scientific methods. Ironically a romantic narrative about the pitfalls of romance and narratives :D A very ideologically satisfying film for people like me (scientists, we're called, mostly by our enemies?). Baseball is a really interesting case study for the proliferation of scientism in American culture, and I almost wish the film had explored a bit more of that (instead of, for instance, including Billy's daughter, an arc that felt too tangential to merit inclusion).

It's also a very nicely written/performed film, for the most part. Brad Pitt's emotional palette stood out especially to me. Many scenes were laden with emotional processing but without revealing a really clear, simplistic idea of what Billy was actually feeling. It leaves room for a whole unique and complex spate of projected emotions. I guess this is one of those matters of ymmv ambiguity; as usual, I lean towards thinking it's mature and artful if I can't pin it down exactly.