Baseball movies have never been this smart. Brad Pitt stars in “Moneyball”, directed by Bennett Miller, who returned from a 6 year hiatus after the Oscar-nominated “Capote”. The film is based on the true story of Billy Beane (Pitt), Excecutive Manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, who after a massive losing streak decides to team up with a tech-saavy analyst (Jonah Hill) in order to draft a winning team on a small budget.

The film is incredibly sharp and the dialogue is extremely snappy(as it should, it’s written by “The Social Network” and “West Wing”’s Aaron Sorkin) and intelligent, so for those looking for a movie light on the dialogue and heavy on the imagery, this might not be your type of entertainment (try “Drive”.) .

All the performances here are phenomenal. Brad Pitt’s delivery is smooth, and the chemistry between Pitt and Hill, who is playing the nerdy/quiet type, is perfect in that it balances out the characters and makes each scene involving an interaction between them pure cinematic magic. Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s performance as the manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team is great, his character shows a resentment towards that of Pitt that is as dramatic as it is hilarious.

Miller’s direction here is quite evident, just looking at the awesome chemistry between the characters and their ability to spew great dialogue without missing a beat. The cinematography here is quite impressive, the film looks great- there are many inventive shots and the baseball scenes are, from a technical standpoint, amazing. Unlike most directors these days, Miller understands when the use of slow motion looks good and when it looks average.

One small problem with the film would be it’s pacing. Even though it’s runtime is 2 hours and 15 minutes, it feels longer than “Avatar”. It sags majorly towards the third act only to recover in the last 5 minutes(quite terrifically, I might add.) So, if you are extremely impatient and are looking for a movie with A LOT of explosions, don’t see this one. You will be sorely disappointed.

So while this may not be the best of the year, it’s certainly a great movie with a few minor issues throughout. The acting is great, the writing is great, the cinematography is stunning. An extremely intelligent film, this may not be for everybody, but hits one out of the park nonetheless.