‘Moneyball:’ The First Oscar Contender This Year

I saw “Moneyball” last night, and it knocked my socks off. The script was incredibly tight, the drama potent and the humor palpable. It could be my favorite movie so far this year alongside Brad Pitt‘s other movie “Tree of Life.”

Now I don’t care what other people are saying about the Oscars this year, but “Moneyball” is the first movie I’ve seen that has major possibilities for the award season. Some are saying “Midnight in Paris” is a contender, but I hated that one. “Moneyball” has all the star power with Pitt, Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman all taking all major roles. It’s not a grand story though; it’s more about the machinations behind baseball and the importance of pushing an idea through to change the system.

The film also has an interesting story behind it in that it almost didn’t get made. In theory, it’s difficult to see why no studio would want to make this since it had Pitt behind it the entire time, and sports movies pretty much always do well at the box office. But once you see what Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin came up with for a script, you begin to see that there’s really not that much baseball in the movie. It takes place in the offices and the locker rooms, rather than the field.

The real winner is Pitt, as pretty much every critic says. This is an amazing role for him, and he plays it up, while at the same time retaining that normal guy persona we all love. It’s still early, but I think that he’s a shoe-in for an Oscar (even because they want Brad and Angelina Jolie walking the red carpet together) and could possibly even win this year. We’ll have to see what else is out there, but I think he could come from behind — George Clooney is the front-runner right now for “The Descendants” — to take the gold.

September Entertainment Hit List

It’s that time of the month where I list the things in September that I’m looking forward to in Boston and the entertainment community at-large. Without further ado…

1. Start of Fall Television — I’m not going to say much about this because I plan on doing a follow-up list about which ten shows I’m most excited to see start up (both old and new) within the week. I’m actually really pumped to see how the new pilots do, since quite a few that I thought would get picked up didn’t (“Poe,” “Locke and Key“).

2. Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” — The last Soderbergh movie I saw in theaters was “Ocean’s Thirteen,” but this film looks to be right up my alley as it’s got a stellar cast — Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, and on and on — and a sci-fi/thriller conceit. A disease starts to take over the world, something that could happen but luckily hasn’t yet. We’ll have to wait until next week for the preliminary reviews, but it looks to be solid fall entertainment. Film releases September 9th.

 

3. Boston Fashion Week — Boston is no New York, and a lot of the events don’t have the grandeur and prestige that you can find there. But, this is the first year that the festival coordinators have decided to have the shows under one tent lending a little more credibility to the goings-on. Plus, there are lots of fun parties and shopping events to hit up where you can find loads of good stuff. I’m hoping to hit up The Launch show where we get to see some of Boston’s new designers. BFW runs from September 23-30.

4. Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” — This movie got a ton of buzz out of Cannes with Refn winning Best Director. Ryan Gosling looks phenomenal, and it looks to be a change for him, as he’s playing more of an action role than he ever has before. This is where entertainment turns into art, much like (hopefully) Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion.” Check it out on September 16.

 

 

5. Life is Good Festival — My boyfriend and I will travel to Canton, Massachusetts, on September 25 to partake in one day of the Life is Good Festival. On our day we will see Brandi Carlile, Ray Lamontagne and The Hold Steady, and that doesn’t even include Saturday’s lineup (I’m sad we’re missing Ingrid Michaelson). Tickets are still available, and there’s lots of fun activities for kids if you feel like you need to bring them with you. The festival runs September 23-25.

6. Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” — This could be the first big awards movie of the season, or it could be playing too early to gain any traction. Either way the cast looks fantastic, boasting Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman in showy roles. It’s definitely going to draw the men in, but hopefully it won’t be too cerebral (it’s about sports economics?) and will play off the viewers’ hearts. The film rolls out on September 23.

 

7. “Candide” at the Huntington Theatre — I’ve made a pledge for this year to see more theater in Boston, and since my outing with the ART last week for “Porgy and Bess” was so successful, I bought tickets to quite a few upcoming shows in the hopes of branching out. My first one, and only for September, will be “Candide” playing at the Huntington Theatre  near my new school Northeastern. It should be a fun musical, nothing too serious, and it’s been getting good reviews in Chicago and Washington D.C. I’ll let you know how it goes.

8. Erin Morgenstern’s “The Night Circus” — This book has gotten a lot of advance press, and I’m not sure what the audience is supposed to be for it, but the idea of two circus magicians who fall in love even though their supposed to be sworn enemies sounds like money right now. I’ve gotten so tired of reading such serious work that I lean towards the silly and romantic in my fiction right now. Hopefully all the talk it’s been getting is true. ‘Night Circus’ comes out in a couple of weeks on September 13.

 

9. Boston Film Festival — They haven’t announced their lineup yet, so I’m taking a chance with this one. I definitely prefer the Independent Film Festival of Boston to this one, but last year they showed “Conviction” and “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” about a month before either came into theaters in Boston. Maybe they’ll have something in demand (and they can usually attract more celebrities than IFFBoston). Check them out from September 16-22.