WMS

Moneyball

2011 · Directed by Bennett Miller

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Woke Score

87

Critic

🍿80

Audience

Ultra Based

Critics rated this 85 points above its woke score. Among Ultra Based films, this critic score ranks #194 of 1469.

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Synopsis

The story of Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball team on a budget, by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

Consciousness Assessment

Moneyball arrives as a conventional sports drama animated by a protagonist's willingness to challenge institutional precedent through quantitative reasoning. The film celebrates intellectual meritocracy within existing capitalist structures rather than interrogating those structures themselves. Billy Beane succeeds by working within the system more cleverly than his rivals, a narrative that finds nothing objectionable in the wealth and hierarchies that surround it.

The cast reflects the historical demographics of professional baseball circa 2002, which is to say predominantly white and male. The female characters, particularly Robin Wright's role, exist in the margins of the narrative. There is no meaningful engagement with representation as a conscious artistic choice, nor any attention to the racial composition of professional athletics beyond what historical accuracy demands. The film does not gesture toward contemporary progressive sensibilities regarding diversity or inclusion.

The absence of progressive markers is not a failure of the film by its own standards, but it remains negligible when assessed through the specific lens of 2020s cultural progressivism. Moneyball is fundamentally a procedural about statistics and baseball, predating the cultural moment we are measuring.

Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm

Critic Reviews

87%from 42 reviews
Variety100

While a hopelessly awkward-looking Hill provides fish-out-of-water laughs, Pitt gives a genuinely soul-searching performance.

Peter DebrugeRead Full Review →
Chicago Sun-Times100

A smart, intense and moving film that isn't so much about sports as about the war between intuition and statistics. I walked in knowing what the movie was about, but unprepared for its intelligence and depth.

Roger EbertRead Full Review →
Miami Herald100

The movie is an absolute triumph of culturally relevant filmmaking – a film that will thrill and fascinate sport junkies and non-fans alike. If you like baseball, you will love this movie. If you hate baseball, you will still love this movie.

Rene RodriguezRead Full Review →
San Francisco Chronicle50

Naysayers have been claiming for years that the "Moneyball" book wouldn't work as a movie. But ultimately, it's the cinematic touches that keep this film version from becoming something exceptional.

Peter HartlaubRead Full Review →

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