Adam reviews the new baseball flick Moneyball:

Popularity: 3% [?]

Rated PG-13 – 2h6

There is not much that I didn’t love about Moneyball. As Brad Pitt says twice in the film: “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”

Moneyball tells the story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics and their General Manager Billy Beane (Pitt). After losing three key players from the previous season, Beane takes the advice of recent Yale economics graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), who uses a statistical approach to winning. “Your goal shouldn’t be to buy players. Your goal should be to buy wins. ”

They set out together to form the best team they can with the limited money they have. These days, who of us isn’t used to being told to deliver higher results with fewer resources?

Ostracized by his peers, Beane’s new method proves rocky at first, until things gel and helped lead to a season that includes breaking an American League all time winning streak record of 20 games.

What’s interesting is the movie isn’t about baseball. It’s about strategy. Moneyball is best when it tries to subtract the humanity of baseball into a cold, hard numbers game, but proves itself wrong. That struggle between the pair makes this a genuinely great film. Pitt is distant, but makes you care for Beane and understand his internal conflicts. Hill is completely believable as a numbers geek who is just starting to find his way.

It is curious that Moneyball is somewhat gloomy in the way that it represents baseball as a business. Pitt’s character has several moments where he struggles with it. The fact is all professional sports are businesses first. Fans know all too well about the layers that need to be peeled back to get to the heart of it all. Moneyball does too.

Side note: Who woulda thought two hours of statistical analysis would prove to be so emotional and interesting?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Adam is extremely conflicted about the new cruising around town movie: Drive

Popularity: 2% [?]

Rated R – 1h40

There may not be a movie this year that I am more conflicted about, other than Drive. It’s a clear metaphor that a car can sit idle at one moment, then be screaming out of control at another. That’s the feeling you get from this movie.

Ryan Gosling plays a character with no name other than “Driver.” He’s a Hollywood stunt driver by day and a hired getaway driver by night. He’s got deep emotions, but we don’t know where they come from. He plays the solitary loner. That is, until he meets and falls for his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan.) Just released from prison, Irene’s husband has a debt to pay off. In trying to protect Irene, the driver chooses to help the husband pull off a heist that spins out of control.

This movie has all the elements of greatness. There is real tension, a great cast and a relentless craving for it’s deeper meaning.  This is a brilliant assembly of talent.  Gosling and Mulligan are pros in their own right, but the additions of Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman and Christina Hendricks is near genius.  I just couldn’t get on board with the pacing of it all. We go through long portions of the film with very little dialogue or action, which is juxtaposed by moments of extreme violence and heart pounding car chase scenes.

In the moments of action, Drive is very effective in putting you right in the passenger seat, exactly where you should be. It’s fast and furious without the steroid injected bravado of the current fast car genre. This is all to say that Drive may be a better movie for what it is not. That’s commendable, but it didn’t feel complete to me.

I can also say that this movie drew out more of a internal reaction in myself than anything else I’ve seen this year. The problem is, it wasn’t always a positive reaction.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Adam review the new Helen Mirren spy thriller: The Debt.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Rated R – 1h54

I’m not sure why Helen Mirren is a modern day action hero, nor do I care. I do know that whatever she has going, is working and working well in her new film The Debt.

Set in two different eras, The Debt aims to tell the truth. First in 1965, a young group of Israeli spies are on a mission in East Berlin to find and bring to justice a wicked Nazi doctor who has evaded capture. With the help of a fellow spy Stephan, who has finally tracked down said doctor, Rachel (Jessica Chastain,) and David (Sam Worthington) posing as a young couple trying to have a baby to get close to the doc. Something goes wrong.

The second plot exists in 1997, where the truth of what actually happens comes back to haunt older Rachel (Helen Mirren,) older David and older Stephan (Tom Wilkinson.) They set out to take action to settle their debt.

The film bounces back and forth in time, but in a reasonable way that sews the eras together. The scenes from the 60’s in Berlin are far more tense, action packed and satisfying.

I can fault the film for the same reason. The constant comparisons between the younger versions of the character and the older versions was a disconnect. They don’t look all that similar, therefore my brain couldn’t keep track of all the names and faces.

Still, The Debt has an old school thriller feel to it. Partly because of the solid story line and partly because the cast has the maturity to pull it all off. With spy stories, you often get the feeling that there will be a double agent to throw you the twist, but the essence of this movie is simpler.

As with most good films, you question some of your own thoughts on the subject at hand. Is a lie the best solution if it what’s good for the masses? Is it ever too late to tell the truth? Is forgiveness still an option? I forgive The Debt for its foibles and still feel satisfied after watching.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Adam reviews the new comedy: Our Idiot Brother.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Rated R – 1h30

Maybe this family dynamic hit a little too close to home. Maybe I agree that you should always expect the best from people. Either way, Paul Rudd delivers a grinable performance in his new lead role.

Our Idiot Brother is the story of Ned, (Rudd) a man in a state of eternal hippie arrested development. He makes choices based not out of stupidity, but from a naivete’, idealistic place that has high hopes for the rest of the world. Ned is jailed for selling pot to a uniformed officer who seemingly entraps him, by making Ned sympathetic to the cop’s bad day.

After getting out, we meet Ned’s three slightly dysfunctional sisters (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel & Emily Mortimer) who take him in. With each sister he seemingly destroys their lives through his man-child ways, but somehow also saves them at the same time.

I feel a little cynical calling out his actions, but it’s hard to believe that someone like Ned actually exists. Are there people so trusting of their fellow man, that they would ask them (on a subway) to hold onto their pocket of twenties, while they clean up a coffee spill? I think there are few, at the most. Then again, it’s hard to criticize a person who only wants good things for and from those around them.

Ned’s sisters seem to be living stereotypically train wrecks of lives, which makes this comedy feel a little contrived. Then again, Rudd’s happy blowtorch of sunshine is a bit too. The thing that saves this movie is it’s good intentions and good nature.

I for one, like Ned.

At one time, I couldn’t say the same for Paul Rudd. From the days of his indie comedy background, I enjoyed his bit roles. That was until he took over broader parts like in “The Ten,” “The Oh In Ohio” and “Over Her Dead Body.” But now, I feel Rudd has grown into a mainstream comical lead. He’s also now one of the guys that I’d go see a movie, just because he’s in it.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Adam reviews the new period piece The Help:

Popularity: 7% [?]

Rated PG-13 – 2h17

If there were someone who came to America and had no idea about our history of racism, this is not the movie I would use to explain it to them. That’s not saying The Help is a bad movie, quite the contrary. It does seem to glaze over the history of race relations in a chick flick friendly fashion.

Set in Mississippi in the 1960’s the help chronicles the creation of a book that tells life stories from the point of view of several black housemaids. It’s a closer look at the racism that lies just beneath the surface. Emma Stone gives a passable performance as the young journalist.

The heart of the movie comes from Viola Davis, who plays Aibileen Clark. It is Aibileen who makes the decision to put her job, life, physical and personal freedom at risk by telling her own story. Her display of courage is what encourages others to tell their story. The underrated Octavia Spencer plays Minnie, another maid who tells her story and provides much of the comic relief.

It’s that comic relief that I found offsetting. It’s hard to go from a scene of blatant racism to another, where we’re supposed to laugh. Overall, it provides the desired effect of brining you back from a tense moment. Still, this movie will be criticized for not staying in that moment and allowing you to reflect on it.

The conclusion to this story leaves something to be desired. Some of the main characters are seemingly left in a worse place than they started, while others might go on to future success. It waters down their triumph of standing up for what is right. There may be some healing from the story, but it’s not guaranteed for some of the characters that we’ve invested in.

I think there is something very powerful that’s said about not only the condemnable treatment of black people, but also of women. These are stories that need to be remembered. Presenting it in a palatable way to modern audiences is a tough sell. The Help manages to present what I think is a “lite” version of true history, but the feeling was there.

Popularity: 9% [?]