I have a theory, which is as follows: if my reasonably beloved Rangers were not in the chase for the World Series once again, I would have found Moneyball to be at least a little less compelling than I did. Still, I like baseball in general enough to have enjoyed it in any case. It combines several worthy sports film ingredients: the rise of the underdog, impressive success, an uncertain ultimate outcome, and the thing where it is really a lot more about the characters than the sport.

Also, Brad Pitt: is there a more affable actor in all of Hollywood? Anyway, though, the premise of the book on which the movie is based is how statistical analysis has started to change the way baseball works. If you like statistics a lot, you will adore this movie. If you do not give a crap or even hate math? It still works pretty okay on the straight sports formula version. If you just hate baseball, I reckon you already were going to give it a miss, and that would probably be a good idea. Even if you find Pitt eminently affable.

First thing: I wonder if I am using this tag wrong. The Social Network was clearly not a documentary, but “drama” by itself implies fiction. Is there a classification for modern drama based on true events? ….that can fit into the tag of “$adjective drama”, I mean.

Anyway, though, I understand all the critical buzz this movie got last year. The script by Sorkin wasn’t as non-stop poppy as some of his previous efforts, but since the subject matter was less breezy than The American President and less smug than A Few Good Men, it definitely worked being a little heavier. And the acting, well, I can’t say for sure whether Jesse Eisenberg is kind of brilliant, but it doesn’t seem like it would be easy to make me dislike you and feel bad for you at the same time, no matter how good of a script you were handed. Anyway, though, not a lot to say about the plot of the movie, but if you were ever interested in the genesis of Facebook, this is where’d you’d go. And if you were not interested, it’s a good enough movie on its own merits that unless you are a shut-in who hates the internet and everything it stands for (like my great-uncle!), you’d probably like it anyway. It has so many good things, like genuine moral dilemmas, smart plot parallels, people who maybe actually learn from their mistakes, and like I already said, a lot of good acting. Well, I didn’t say that, but don’t let my singling-out of Eisenberg be seen to cast aspersions on anyone else. Good stuff, yo.