Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2011

In 2002, Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane and a nerdy Yale statistics wonk came up with a method of “sabermetric” team-building that would allow teams with small budgets to compete with hugely funded teams, like the Yankees, that simply buy championships by buying champions. This involved finding undervalued players whose stats, interwoven with those of the rest of the team, pointed to games won, regardless of homers hit or bases stolen. This of course flew in the face of the conventional wisdom and instincts of the team’s grizzled scouts as well as those of its manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman). By following his instinct to ignore their instincts, so to speak, Beane virtually put his career on the line. That this dramatization of material you’d more commonly expect to see covered in a documentary is as engrossing as it is⎯to fans and non fans alike⎯is a small cinematic miracle, and owes its success largely to great performances by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, and to the smart, realistic dialogue by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) and Steven Zaillian. Directed by Bennett Miller (Capote). Fresh, culturally relevant, satisfying and strangely funny, this is possibly the most soulful statistics-based movie I’ve ever seen.