Seeing that the Academy Awards are just around the corner, I would like to cave to the award craze and present a list that is representative of my take on the last year in film, which is intended to be a substitute of the top 10 of 2011, which I still can’t publish because I’m missing some promising films. I hope you all enjoy it.
The Year of Brad: arguably the best year in Brad Pitt’s career as he was involved in the awe-inspiring Tree of Life and the touching Moneyball.
With much left to write to update my IMDB TOP 250 film challenge, I give you a few reviews of some of the films I have seen recently.
Moneyball (2011 – Bennett Miller): not being a fan of baseball in any way, I can say it is quite an accomplishment for a film that revolves around the sport to have captured my attention so deeply. In fact, I will go out on a limb and say it is the best performance of Brad Pitt’s career and I would go even further and say he is in my short list in the Best Actor category of 2011. I confidently state it because I could not imagine anyone else playing the part of Billy Bean, the former sporting director of the Oakland Athletics that significantly changed the philosophy on how to manage a major league baseball team.
The film’s script is smart, funny and carefully crafted. It provides a great portrait of Billy as a person, exploring not only his love and devotion for baseball, but his insecurities and deeply personal struggles. The cast around Brad Pitt is equally persuasive, with the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a standout in the role of manager of the Oakland A’s. The cinematography is equally impressive. Baseball fields are treated as temples that are to be admired, which also serve as catalysts to people’s hopes and fears.
Props go to Jonah Hill who was convincing as Brad’s geeky sidekick.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (excellent)
The Blog of Big Ideas 