Moneyball

This movie, to a little sports statistics nerd 11-year old kid, was paradise. Years and 5 watches later, this movie holds a truly special place in my heart as a movie built for me, an American kid who loved the ballpark from the second I walked into nats park, and who watched Steve Souza Jr. seal the first no hitter in nationals history, and held my breath as baseball’s ultimate underdogs completed one of the greatest runs in baseball history beating the villains of the baseball world, the Houston Astros, to bring a World Series crown back to the DMV. This movie being an encapsulation of the sport I’ve loved my entire life would be enough for me to rate this high, but it’s also an excellently developed narrative, filled with characters you want to see win so badly, and captures better than any movie I’ve ever seen the magic of why sports are so magical. This movie’s emotional hitch won’t work as well on others, obviously, but this was a movie for me, and despite not being a life changing movie for most, it’s so perfect a depiction of the joy sports have brought to me and many others. Worth a watch for anyone wanting a phenomenally directed film, and doubled for anyone who has ever shedded a tear or cried out in pure jubilation for a sports team.