Get Your Reps In: “Moneyball” Plays Like a Period Piece

What to see at Portland’s repertory theaters.

Moneyball Brad Pitt, left, and Jonah Hill star in Columbia Pictures' drama "Moneyball." (IMDB)
By Chance Solem-Pfeifer

Moneyball (2011)

In 2024, Moneyball plays like a period piece.

It depicts the birth of the nerd epoch, the data revolution, whatever you want to call it—both in baseball and our culture. The homespun wisdom of America’s pastime is no match for a Yale grad with an economics degree, and bam, baseball became algorithmic.

“The goal isn’t to buy players; the goal is to buy runs,” posits stat wonk Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). Trying to field a competitive team on a limited salary, Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) picks up that philosophy and sprints toward home with it.

On June 20 at Cinemagic, Noah Gittell, author of Baseball: The Movie, will speak to how that thesis jibes with or flies in the face of 100 years of baseball lore on the big screen. (The Q&A follows a Moneyball screening.)

But the trick of Moneyball is that while this analytics revolution has not made the sport any more enjoyable—and it certainly hasn’t saved the poor Oakland A’s from imminent relocation to Las Vegas—watching the coup unfold via nonstop workplace arguments is a blast. Cinemagic, June 20.

ALSO PLAYING:

Academy: But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), June 21–27. Heavenly Bodies (1984) on LaserDisc, June 22, 26 and 27. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), June 21–27. Cinema 21: The Room (2003), June 21. To Die For (1995), June 22. The Favourite (2018), June 22. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) subtitled, June 23 and 26; dubbed, June 24. Cinemagic: Blue Ruin (2013), June 23 and 25. Hard Target (1993), June 21 and 26. I Saw the Devil (2010), June 22 and 26. Lady Snowblood (1973), June 24 and 26. The Princess Bride (1987), June 21, 22, 24, 25 and 27. The Revenant (2015), June 23 and 27. Clinton: Showgirls (1995), June 20. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), June 21. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), June 22. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), June 22. Moonlight (2016), June 25. Hollywood: Hardware (1990), June 20. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), June 21 and 22. World of Tomorrow and Me (2015), June 21–23, 25 and 26. The Searchers (1956), June 22 and 23. Spartacus (1960), June 23. The Linguini Incident (1991), June 24. Time of the Heathen (1961), June 25. Tomorrow: Slam (1998), June 23.

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