Moneyball ****

A business case study masquerading as a sports story, "Moneyball" uses the conventions of baseball movies to construct a drama as interesting as it is emotionally satisfying. A baseball movie like no other baseball movie, "Moneyball" tells the true story of Oakland A's manager Billy Beane's endeavor to put together a baseball team with little money by using a quantitative analysis of the characteristic performance of players who would fit together, rather than paying big bucks for all-around stars. Brad Pitt as Beane turns in a characteristically workmanlike portrayal that is pitch perfect. Jonah Hill as the number cruncher Peter Brand, a Yale graduate in economics who came up with the analysis, is just as good and believable portraying the walking, talking baseball computer and encyclopedia that Brand was. It may sound like a marketing cliche, but you definitely do not have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this well-made movie.