I didn’t want to watch this movie, but even if I did, I didn’t want to like it. Well, I watched it, and I liked it. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, it has everything a great movie should have: A wonderful director — Bennett Miller, Oscar nominated for directing 2005’s “Capote”, two fantastic screenwriters — Aaron Sorkin, Oscar winner for last year’s screenplay of “The Social Network” and Steven Zaillian — Oscar winner for his screenplay of 1993’s “Schindler’s List”, a brilliant crew, and a cast that includes some of my favourites Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, and Chris Pratt. It all works together and makes a successful film. It’s not just a baseball film either, it’s an intricate character study that transcends its surface subject and lets us in deeper. “Moneyball” could have actually been one of the best films of the year, but instead it has to settle for just ‘great’. Its flaws are few, but my biggest problem is that it does everything you’d think a baseball movie would do. Aside from its real life story, this is basically every baseball movie ever made put together into one hodge-podge spectacular. Luckily, the film has enough charm, humour, and intelligence to set itself apart from other baseball films. Steven Soderbergh was attached to direct this film a while back, but then it went though production hell for a bit until Miller signed on as director. I can’t help but wonder how Soderbergh’s “Moneyball” would have turned out, but I have to say I am completely impressed with Bennett Miller’s work. I loved “Capote” back in ‘05 and he has proven to us with this that he wasn’t just a one-hit wonder. While I don’t think this film is as spectacular as everyone is saying, I do think it’s still one of the better films of the year and worthy of its accolades for Brad Pitt, its screenplay, and its editing. It’s a big contender this Oscar season, we’ll just have to see how it plays out. (B)