Review: "MONEYBALL"

One of the more ironic things I've experienced in life was that no matter how often I was teased by my far more athletic and popular peers for being a comic book-reading, science fiction-obsessed nerd, whenever a certain sport's season rolled around, it was always "fantasy baseball" this and "fantasy football" that.

For the uninitiated, fantasy sports consists of hardcore fans getting together during the regular season, drafting their own "fantasy team" of actual players from an American sports league, and they score points based on their players' statistics.

Think "Magic: The Gathering" for jocks.

And that irony I mentioned earlier? Just how nerdy can one get by gathering together and spending hours babbling about statistics and points? They might as well be doing this in their parents' basement while drinking Shasta and listening to Danny Elfman music (yes, us true nerds can stereotype too, what's up?!).

But there was one man in particular whose interest in statistics changed the game of baseball dramatically. His name was Billy Beane, a former baseball player turned General Manager of the Oakland Athletics whose method of drafting players based on their stats rather than their youth and asking price shook up Major League Baseball in ways that no one would have ever expected. And though a true story about numbers and statistics may seem boring on paper, director Bennett Miller and co-scribes Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian likewise did the impossible with the wholly engaging baseball drama Moneyball.

Drafted right out of high school to play in the major leagues, Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) never got the lucky streak he experienced as a teenage ball player. After two decades in the game, Billy became the GM of the Oakland A's, a franchise suffering from both a low budget and an embarrassing win-loss ratio, exacerbated by a crushing loss from the Yankees in the 2001 postseason.

Despite his scouts' insistence, Billy believes that a winning team shouldn't be based on looks, youth, or star power. Determined to build up his team from scratch without the need of a Yankees-sized budget, Billy hires Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a young Yale-educated economics major and Cleveland Indians statistician, as his new assistant GM.

Peter implements a sabermetric approach to drafting players based on their on-base average, and that means hiring players who are no longer highly desirable by the big guns, such as catcher-turned-first baseman Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt), pitcher Chad Bradford (Casey Bond), and longtime outfielder David Justice (Stephen Bishop). This doesn't sit well with either Billy's scouts or Athletics manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who already has a beef with Billy over a contract dispute and continuously disregards Billy's instructions for the lineup.

Even though the Athletics initially perform less than admirably under Billy and Peter's new approach, soon enough the team defies the odds and begins an unexpected winning streak. Billy now does all he can to ensure his team's resurrection, all as they rocket towards the World Series.

Any average moviegoer will tell you that if you want feel-good, spirit-rising cinema, you look no farther than baseball movies. After all, classics like The Natural, Field of Dreams, Pride of the Yankees, and (oh, what the hell) The Sandlot are clear examples of good old-fashioned, uplifting yarns about America's favorite pasttime, but who thought that you could count amongst their ranks a movie focusing primarily on not the actual action itself, but the business and number-crunching of the sport?

Oscar-nominated director Miller (Capote) and Oscar-winning screenwriters Sorkin (The Social Network) and Zaillian (Schindler's List) certainly thought so. Adapting Michael Lewis' nonfiction book of the same name, Moneyball is a brilliant exercise in excellent performances, character development, and masterful dialogue (which, if you saw last year's mindblowing Social Network, is Sorkin's specialty).

And those three attributes are brought to you onscreen thanks to a one-two punch in the form of Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, making the film their show and their show only. Pitt (who I constantly argue is a master actor unfairly labeled as a mere pretty face by some critics) is terrific as a motor-mouthed salesman of a General Manager whose unsuccessful past in the big leagues motivates him to make sure no current players make the same mistakes he did, all as he tries to balance out both reviving the Athletics and being there for his supportive daughter (played by a solid Kerris Dorsey).

The bigger delight than Pitt, however, is Hill playing Billy's soft-spoken statistics guru (a composite of a couple of Beane's real-life advisors). Only known for his roles in raunchy stoner flicks or sex comedies, Hill's first major dramatic performance is an absolute knockout, thanks especially to his fabulous camaraderie with Pitt and his understated demeanor amongst all of the craziness around him. It's an exemplary performance that's well-deserving of award season recognition (the same goes for Pitt).

Because the two leads own the show, the rest of the cast are pretty much relegated to window dressing, albeit very good window dressing. Pratt, Bishop, and Bond make the most of their roles as the new players Billy places all of his statistical faith on. Robin Wright does okay in an extended cameo as Billy's supportive ex-wife, but the most disappointing is the usually amazing Philip Seymour Hoffman (who won a Best Actor Oscar for director Miller's Capote) as the team manager with a chip on his shoulder. While he certainly isn't bad in the role, it's nothing spectacular either, lending the (well-deserved) spotlight to Pitt and Hill.

The script and the direction are marvelous, with the filmmakers handling the verbal fireworks with aplomb, and while Sorkin's dialogue doesn't possess the raw ferocity that was so prevalent in his Facebook epic, it's still incredibly effective and everything ranging from the great cinematography and the dramatic timing to Mychael Danna's wonderfully low-key musical score and the well-crafted characterizations.

While some may consider a full two hours of home runs and grand slams to be a truly exciting way to watch a damn good baseball movie, Moneyball proves that, behind the scenes, there can be as much drama or even more. That is, of course, if you have the right team assembled to knock it out of the park.

Letter Grade: "A"

Review: "HORRIBLE BOSSES"

Though I'm only in my mid-20s, I can easily lay claim to having lived through my fair share of bad jobs. I mostly worked in retail (an industry that easily resides in at least the second or third circles of employment Hell), and while a sizable chunk of my ire was targeted at the lousy pay, insulting work conditions, and peanut-brained customers, a major stress-trigger came from certain co-workers and even some bosses.

Luckily, I haven't gotten to the point where I've had job in which my manager was an insufferable prick (but give it time, I'm young), but I have had moments where I felt my superiors were acting obtuse, petty, or even downright unfair and unprofessional. I mean, who hasn't felt disenfranchised by their bosses? Okay, now who's been so angry at their bosses that they've felt that cold-blooded murder was a justifiable option?

While I'm sure most of you reading this will say "no" (and I'm sure a good chunk of you are lying through your teeth), this is the premise that drives Horrible Bosses, a passable black comedy that nonetheless decides to play it comically safe rather than push the boundaries like it should.

Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman), Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis), and Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) are three friends who are each experiencing turmoil in regards to their respective bosses. Nick is an overworked financial executive gunning for a well-deserved promotion at his firm, and is forced to jump through hoops by his megalomaniac boss Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), only for Harken to absorb the position (and the extra pay) for himself.

Kurt works at a chemical company under his likeable boss and mentor Jack Pellitt (Donald Sutherland), but is distressed when Jack dies of a heart attack and is replaced by his egocentric, selfish, and coke-addicted son Bobby (Colin Farrell). Matters are made worse when Bobby agrees to profit on disposing his company's chemicals in a South American village, not caring that he's exposing thousands of people to dangerous toxic waste.

Newly engaged to his girlfriend Stacy (Lindsay Sloane), Dale is an assistant to dentist Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston), an aggressive nymphomaniac who constantly subjects Dale to sexual harassment. Unable to find a better paying job because of being a registered sex offender (though he insists he was only urinating at an empty playground at night), Dale is blackmailed by Julia, where she threatens to tell Stacy that Dale had an affair unless he actually has sex with Julia.

Equally frustrated with their respective situations and inability to simply quit their jobs, the men joke about life being easier if their bosses were all dead. But soon the joke becomes a serious consideration, and the three friends soon agree to do away with their superiors. Approaching an ex-con by the name of Dean "Motherfucker" Jones (Jamie Foxx), the men ask for his services as a hitman. Jones instead suggests that to avoid suspicion from the police in regards to motive, the guys should kill each other's bosses instead. Nick, Kurt, and Dale then begin an awkward and increasingly dangerous operation to relieve themselves of their bosses.

In a year of sequels, superhero films, and reboots, I became especially excited to see Horrible Bosses for two reasons: the film is directed by Seth Gordon, the man behind the brilliant and incredibly engaging arcade-game documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a film which easily lands in my Top 20 favorite films of all time.

The second reason is the cast, boasting a bevy of hugely talented actors including Jason Bateman (Juno, Extract, TV's "Arrested Development"), Jason Sudeikis ("Saturday Night Live"), Charlie Day (TV's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"), and the legendary Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, The Usual Suspects). One would think an assembly of great talent like this would arguably insure a successful film, but in this case, the cast is actually one of the film's few saving graces.

While funny and entertaining for the most part, Horrible Bosses' major flaw is that despite being a black comedy, it doesn't go far enough to justify such a label. Yes, the basic premise of three working stiffs plotting to murder their bosses is dark and macabre on paper, but in execution it's a different story.

Gordon seems afraid to mine the film's dark potential by making the leads too likable, and plays it safe by infusing a Hangover-style sense of madcap anarchy rather than drawing laughs from truly uncomfortable, misanthropic, and morbid moments played ironically (like, say, Fargo or, to a lesser extent, the ultimate "hate-your-job-and-boss" cult classic Office Space). Despite proactively plotting to murder three human beings, the three leads never seem to be truly vengeful, and play the part of Clouseau-esque buffoons rather than going for the Travis Bickle/Rupert Pupkin route, and it's this issue that calls the "black comedy" labeling into question.

Another issue the film faces is the somewhat misogynistic portrayal of all the female characters, which seems to be apeing a similar issue in the films directed and/or produced by Judd Apatow (Bridesmaids notwithstanding). This is clearly a man's movie, and if you see a woman here, they're either slutty (Spacey's wife, played by Julie Bowen), a man-eater (Aniston), or completely devoid of personality or dimension (Sloane).

Despite all of this, what makes Horrible Bosses worth a watch is the terrific chemistry between the six leads. Bateman (easily one of the best comedic "straight men" in the business) is ever-reliable as the put-upon middle management schmuck whose life is made a living hell by his monster of a boss, played with masterful psychotic flair by Spacey.

Sudeikis is solid as the womanizing smart-ass of the protagonist trio, and with a hilarious combover hairdo, Farrell is hysterical as his amoral, drug addicted brat of a supervisor. Despite being having the meatiest female role and still being portrayed as a sexually-voracious pervert, Aniston still delivers with her comic timing and dares to actually break type for once. As for Foxx, he makes the most of what's essentially an extended cameo, though hopefully this and last year's Due Date won't make him complacent with making a living on mostly pointless cameo roles when he has so much more to deliver.

The standout, however, is Charlie Day as the sexually harassed dental assistant. An ingeniously funny comic actor (just watch an episode of his FX series "It's Always Sunny" and see for yourself), Day gives the film its energy and the most of its charisma. Day carries over plenty of the mentally unstable madness from his character on the aforementioned TV show, and every excited statement or outburst is comic gold.

It's because of the great chemistry between the three lead actors and their respective bosses that Horrible Bosses deserves a recommendation. Even though the potential for a truly great dark comedy was squelched and the screenplay is nothing to boast about, Bosses is nonetheless an entertaining distraction. But definitely not one worth killing over.

Letter Grade: "C"