Quick Review: The Ides Of March

Did you know politics is a dirty, cutthroat business? If you didn't, first check yourself for a pulse. Then watch a few hours of MSNBC, Fox News, etc. before you see "The Ides of March" so you won't be too shocked by what goes on. The film takes place in the days leading up to the Ohio presidential primary, and the Democratic race is close. Oh, and George Clooney, whose Mike Morris has a slight lead, is the governor of Pennsylvania. If only art imitated life. Morris is charismatic and very much progressive -- sort of a combination of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Ryan Gosling plays Morris' junior campaign manager, a budding political genius who is all about making a difference. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the senior campaign chief and much more cynical. Then events occur that turn things all topsy-turvy. Some are the work of the opposing campaign manager (Paul Giamatti), some the work of Gosling's and Hoffman's characters, some are caused by a Morris campaign intern (Evan Rachel Wood). Did someone say "intern"? Uh-oh... Anyway, I wasn't quite blown away by this movie. It's entertaining, sometimes more realistic than you'd expect, other times a bit too far-fetched. Solid but not spectacular, although it might get some love when awards season begins. My grade: B.

Quick Review: Moneyball

Remember those days when I went to see at least one movie each week, if not more? It's been a while. Back then the Phillies were still winning games. Speaking of baseball, today I went to see "Moneyball." It's based on the Michael Lewis book about Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane and his use of sabermetrics to put together a competitive roster despite extremely limited financial resources, focusing particularly on the 2002 season. That year the A's, despite losing big names Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Jason Isringhausen to big-market clubs, won 103 games, including an AL-record 20 straight.

In other words, the stat geeks who are doing their best to ruin the game now have their own movie. And it stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane. So there's been a lot of hype about it in baseball circles as well as the usual places where movies are discussed.

Pitt is fine, but the movie itself doesn't entirely hold up. A lot of scenes -- Beane and his assistant GM (Jonah Hill, whose Peter Brand is either based on Paul DePodesta, the actual assistant GM, or some amalgam of DePodesta, Theo Epstein and possibly others, depending on what you read), going about rebuilding the club, aggravating the old-time scouts, or Beane's clashing with A's manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman) have snap to them, but to balance it out (or to try to attract people who don't like sports, or women, or something) there are also a few softer scenes featuring Beane and his daughter. These scenes, and the entire ending, in which Beane is wooed by the Red Sox after the 2002 season, drag the film down. And there's some other fictionalization. Trades that actually occurred two months apart are depicted as happening almost simultaneously at the trade deadline.

So the movie, like the concept, is flawed.