“Would you rather get one shot in the head or five in the chest and bleed to death?” Although Billy Beane  (Brad Pitt) is explaining how to fire someone in this scene, it could apply to the conflict of Moneyball. Based on a true story, Beane is the general manager for the Oakland A's, a baseball team so broke that it can't afford a free vending machine in its locker room. Consequently, all its best players get stolen faster than bases. This isn't the A's fault, it's the entirety of baseball's, which relies on scouts’ dumb luck to pick players who don't pan out, haemorrhaging money in the process. Beane would know, for he was one. Baseball needs the opposite of Beane.

Who would you turn to reinvent America's pastime? Chances are it wouldn't be a fat Yale economist  named Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). Brand may have Ivy League manners that don't fit in the crass tobacco-spitting world of baseball, but he has numbers. Sabrmetrics, using advanced statistical analysis to evaluate players, is Brand's lingua franca and how Beane revolutionises the A's by picking undervalued players who get on base more for less money. Persuading the MLB is harder and the goal in the film isn't the A's scoreboard, but whether Beane and Brand are right.

With more Friday Night Light's-style shaky close ups than shots of games, Moneyball isn't really a film about baseball, but the men behind it.  The hubris that make many hate Pitt is his strength because it  becomes an effective metaphor for the arrogance of baseball.  Essentially, Beane is reforming more than baseball, but himself. Pitt's natural bravado contrasted with the self-deprecating comic timing of Hill create for some hilarious verbal sparring, reminiscent of The Social Network (unsurprising, considering Aaron Sorkin worked on the script).

Moneyball is not just another Pitt or sports film. Just as its protagonists reinvigorated baseball, Moneyball injects new life into the genre. The players may be reduced to numbers, but the characters are strong enough to create one of the most compelling dramas of the season.