Dave Hanratty

Like, I watched this last night in quasi-preparation for coming in today.

I also needed a pick-me-up.

And I was just, like, marvelling at the fact that this is actually so easy to understand for, like, my wife was watching with me listening about what they're trying to do and explaining why, oh, yeah, this is how we would value players in Oakland.

I read a review saying, it's a film about baseball that demands no knowledge of the game.

yeah which considering they're actually talking about very intricate parts of the game it's not just oh hit the ball over the fence for a home run it's like let's get on base and why that's important and stuff like that aren't some of the scouts and data guys played by real guys as well I think possibly some of the smaller background roles there's some great lines in that you know like oh I don't like him why not he's got an ugly girlfriend he's not confident lacks confidence

And Brad Pitt going, oh my God.

You got Philip Seymour Hoffman, a small role, but it's Philip Seymour Hoffman.

So it's just, it's perfection.

Impactful though, memorable.

I love the shot of, does it dovetail the movie of Brad Pitt sitting in the stands at night?

Yeah.

It's just beautifully cinematic.

And talk about montages, some unbelievable montages in this movie.

One of which, when they go on that long winning streak, that kind of legitimizes their project.

And it's like using ESPN footage from the time.

And the other montage that always makes me emotional, honestly, is when it's Billy Bean thinking back on his own career.

And when he's sitting around the dinner table with his parents and the scouts come in and they're pitching him this dream of you could be a big star in New York.

You know, you have college here, you have New York here, you have to make a choice.

And there's one line the scout says, I don't know why, but every time he says it, it resonates so much with me when he's like, Billy, we're all told at some point in our life that we can't play the children's game anymore.

We don't know when it's going to be.