With technology and mathematics continuing to replace the human workforce, the relevancy of "<I>Moneyball<I>" far supersedes the baseball park. Nevertheless, while the plot of this Oscar-nominated film can feel numerically engineered at times, it never forgets its more sentient roots as a veritable sports movie. With statistically-driven montage sequences, an ecstatic portrayal of the Oakland A's record breaking twenty-game win streak, and the depiction of a ragtag team replete with unorthodox personalities, "<I>Moneyball<I>" balances its heady & arithmetical proclivities by adding all of the classic sports tropes we've come to love in this traditionally 'feel good' genre.

From the opening shots of the Oakland A's forlorn front office to its moody final close-up of a General Manager's staring straight ahead with bittersweet tears outlining his eyes, "<I>Moneyball<I>" is much more emotionally complex than your ordinary baseball flick. Written by Steven Zaillian ("Searching for Bobby Fisher") and Aaron Sorkin ("The Social Network"), directed by Bennett Miller ("Capote" / "Foxcatcher"), and starring Brad Pitt (playing Billy Beane) and Jonah Hill (as Peter Brand), the film is a truly ensemble effort: with each member of the all-star roster pulling their weight. Even the smaller roles in the film—from Phillip Seymour Hoffman performance as the beleaguered A's coach Art Howe to Chris Pratt's performance as an aging catcher relocated to first base—fill in the margins of "<I>Moneyball<I>" with the necessary layers of subtext and texture the film needs to drive its philosophical home. 

Recognizing the impact and moral weight that these players give the film, Jordan Puga and Paul Keelan analyze the many philosophical and ethical predicaments that are provoked by the growing popularity of SABRmetrics in baseball and beyond:

Have we become too consumed with empirical data and lost our instinctive human edge? 

Was Billy Beane's all-in bet on the hypothesis that OBP trumps all other factors the predominant factor in spurring the Oakland A's toward their miraculous turnaround season? 

And if the money is simply reallocated to overpaying GM's and sabermetricians in the aftermath of the growing prominence of this practice, has anything really been circumvented or changed? 

These are big-time questions, and "<I>Moneyball's<I>" ambivalent ending—leaving the viewer stewing and pensive at best—serves as the ideal catalyst for meaningful discourse: providing a ton of existential pickles to be scrupulously parsed and pondered over. 

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