By Nick Lives

I think the thing I love most about being a nerd is being oblivious to nearly all of the popular music stars of the modern age. That isn't to say that I simply enjoy being oblivious for the sake of not knowing things, but I like it because it keeps my stance on music relatively unaltered by popular media and unaffected by the hype for any albums that may be coming out. Essentially, I am impervious to any prior advertising or gossip about these kinds of things. This makes me happy.

All that being said, let's see what the music industry has in store for us today!

Scotty McCreery:  "The Trouble With Girls"

Judging by the title of this song, I can tell you I am already offended. It seems Scotty decided that writing a song about all the problems he associates with the opposite sex would be a good idea. That's not too gentleman-like, now is it?

 If any of you ladies agree, and would like to complain about someone accusing girls of being trouble, feel free to send them to Scotty himself.

All that first-impression rubbish aside, let's get this show on the road already!

Oh, and since this is a video review, we're gonna try something a little different today. You folks watch the video with me and I'll put my commentary and impressions along with the TIME in which they appear so you can keep track of what I'm going on about. When you see a TIME listed, go ahead and pause the video to read my thoughts about it.

Now let's do this.

0:02 - So we're two seconds into the video, and already we are setting the mood. Here we see two manly silhouettes with big ears walking down a dimly lit hallway. Very nice lighting, but one has to wonder what kind of school lights their hallways so dramatically. I wish our school was lit like this, that way you could look like an action hero any time you came through the doors.

0:15 - Wait, what happened to the other guy who was walking with Scotty? Oh, I get it, this is the symbolic "In Scotty's mind" part of the music video. I'm guessing he's gonna sing now, right?

0:20 - This facial expression is priceless. That is all. Moving on, now.


0:46 - It looks like Scotty thinks himself to be a bit of a ladies man here, judging by that smirk on his face. Unfortunately for him, he's getting shooed away by this particular group of ladies. Maybe you shouldn't come off so sexist, eh Scotty?

0:58 - Here we have Scotty obviously wasting this girl's valuable class time. Sure, she appears to be amused by his antics, but inside we all know she's thinking: "You are aware that we keep very toxic chemical in that funnel, yes?"

1:10 - After this incident, Scotty realized he just wasn't cut out to be a chemist. Not pictured here: The girl getting horribly burned due to Scotty's "mishap."

1:46 - This shot, coupled with the lyrics behind it, seem to indicate that Scotty had something to do with the note that girl just received. If this be the case, one has to wonder why the note had to be passed all the way across the room if his intention was simply to pass it to the girl sitting RIGHT NEXT TO HIM.

2:04 - After passing a presumably flirty note to the blonde girl in his clas, here Scotty shows what a classy guy he is by immediately turning around to flirt with yet another girl sitting next to him. Smooth move, Scotty boy.

2:38 - Here we establish Scotty plays baseball. This may seem trivial, but just wait and watch.

2:42 - Here an entire row of pretty girls cheers for... someone. It can't possibly be Scotty they're cheering for, because last we saw him he failed to catch or even recognize an obvious baseball zooming past him. Perhaps they're cheering for that handsome black boy we saw earlier? It was apparent that he meant business when it comes to baseball, so at least that would be a reasonable reason to cheer.

2:52 - Finally we see Scotty actually doing something other than standing around with a goofy look on his face during his baseball game. To put things into perspective, he's finally doing something productive when THE SUN BEGINS TO SET. Man, what an athlete we have here.

3:02 - Now I'm no sports expert, but since when is baseball played using obvious SOCCER nets? Is Scotty playing soccer now or did they just think this shot looked cool and disregarded the context of it?

3:33 - The video seems to end how it began, with a big-eared silouette walking down a dimly lit school hallway. But what ever happened to the other guy? Was he Scotty's twin brother whom he switches places with every other shot or was he some friend of Scotty's that he deemed unimportant due to him having a Y chromosome? Whatever the case, we're missing someone here.

FINAL IMPRESSION: This felt like yet another country music video about a guy who likes girls and about girls with gigantic smiles. What more can I expect? I suppose it accomplishes what it sets out to do: offending its core female audience.

For that, it gets 5 baseballs at a soccer field out of 5.

By Nicholas Lives

So once again a new album lands on my lap waiting for review. Even though I have literally no background in music, I still believe it's rather fitting I review it, in order to give these musicians a more laid back outside perspective. But if you've read any of my other album reviews, you already know this.

So anyway, "Kids in the Street" is apparently a new album from the so-called All-American REJECTS, the band that gave us that song everyone loved in Middle School, "Dirty Little Secret."

(Exasperated Sigh)

Alright, let's get this over with.

...So after having injected my computer with the contents of this two-song sampler CD, I have noticed something a bit odd: The two sample songs don't have song titles.

Given this lack of information, coupled with the fact that I can't be bothered to go searching for titles on the internet, I will be supplying my own titles to each song for your convenience.

NOTE: If you want to hear the song yourself, click on the title.

Track 1: "Teen Angst Nightmare"

Apparently it's customary these days to open your songs with the audible SKREEEEECH of a speaker giving feedback. Considering I'm listening to this on a pair of earbuds,this horrid sound had no where to go but directly into my ear canals. This is quite a painful first impression.

As the after-effect of the SKREECH wears off on my ears, I am now starting to hear some actual music and lyrics. Unfortunately, it's not much better.

From what I can understand by the angst-driven man's lyrics, this is yet another song about a breakup and the guy is getting over it. Basically, this is the guy's version of that obnoxious "So what? I'm still a rock star" song that still gets played on the radio every so often.

The irony about songs like this, though, is that despite the singer's claims that "they are over it" and that "they don't care about it anymore," they contradict themselves somewhat and prove that they are indeed NOT completely over it by writing an entire song about it. If you really are moving on, why are you wasting our time singing about it, huh mister angst?


Track 2: "Busy Little Bee"

Bahahahaha!! Alright, if the lyrics in this song were made to be intentionally bad, then kudos to you, All-American REJECTS, because you just made my day.

"You're a pretty little flower, and I'm a busy little bee."

I honestly can't tell what I'm supposed to take from that, fellas. I mean, at first I thought it was supposed to be some kind of innuendo-based metaphor, but then I remembered that the metaphor for sex isn't "the flowers and the bees," but it's "the birds and the bees."

That aside, the rest of the song seems to indicate the guy in the song is just pallin' around with this "pretty little flower" of a girl, so why exactly does he refer to himself as a "busy little bee?"

Well let's think about this for a moment: Bees are known to land on flowers in order to collect nectar from them, which usually gets some pollen on their little bee bodies, which they then carry over to other flowers, and areas, which helps cross-pollinate and whatnot.

Perhaps then, what this guy means to say when he sings "I'm a busy little bee," is something along the lines of:

"I am taking things about you and spreading them to other women."

Oh, I get it! It's about gossiping, right?

To wrap things up here, I'm just going to go ahead and give these two songs a score so we can all get on with our lives.

"Kids in the Street" gets 2 gossiping-busy-bees out of 5.

By Malorie Free

“Some Nights,"The Indie Band FUN. ‘s newest album, finds the Queen/Beach Boys pop of The Format’s late career and Fun.’s debut record infused with beats of the bass-heavy variety; If Nate Ruess was to exuberant for you on previous outing, you’ll find nothing approaching enthusiasm here. The pop-rock band – rounded off by Jack Antonoff (Steel Train) and Andrew Dost (Anathallo) – somehow find a context for the enormity of the lead single “We Are Young”, surrounding it with songs so extroverted it should be uncomfortable; yet it never is.

Rarely, anyway: the bass on “It Gets Better” is genuinely, too heavy; the vocoders sections of “Closer Stars” are challenging at best. But away from these doubts already, because they are the only blemishes on a gorgeous soundscape and stellar songwriting exhibition which lives off its own indelible charisma and builds brilliance out of its ideas. These compositions are, when distilled, no less layered (really) and decisive than Aim and Ignite’s; the temptation to assume that electronics render depth a second-fiddle notion is rebuffed by the unique character of tracks like “All Alone” and the record’s title –track.

Throughout the track, Ruess puts in the most commanding and charming performance of his career to date, whether he’s backed up by a choir, synthesized by vocoders, or left to his own raw, dramatic devices. On “All Right” he exhausts himself – and I know, I know, that I put up a front, but maybe just this once, let me keep this one? – Only to reclaim his own salvation on “One Foot” as he declares:  I will die for my own sins, thanks a lot; we’ll rise up ourselves, thanks for nothing at all! If, from those snippets, Some Nights sounds like a heavy listen, the beauty is that it somehow manages to be both weighty and carefree. The buzz of songs like “Stars” is nothing close to vapid, but nor is it so self-involved as to lose its polish.

You can find Queen and Kanye West bursting out of Some Nights’s sweeping chords and harmonies – and you don’t even have to listen all that hard – but when all ten tracks are delivered with this much conviction it hardly seems relevant ; the energy and personality which flood out of every melody give the album its own stamp of authority. It tips over into excess at rare moments, but even as you can hear those moments happening, they provoke grins inside and out. Cynics will find the optimism too optimist and the tunes too tuneful and the anthems too anthemic. Forget them, they’ve just forgotten what it’s like to be youngJ

By Jaren Jolley

NOTE: This film is rated R.  Director David Fincher had extremely high expectations to fill with his adaption of the international best selling novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and its Swedish film version from 2009.  Fincher’s directorial credentials (Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Social Network) make him more than capable enough to take on such a massively acclaimed piece of work.  Coupled with an impeccable cast featuring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, and Stellan Skarsgard, Dragon Tattoo draws undeniable attention.

            Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) is a financial journalist and co-editor of Millenium magazine.  When Blomkvist runs a story about a financial mogul that is inaccurate and is charged with libel.  After having lost some of his credibility, Blomkvist is offered a job by retired CEO, Henrik Vanger (Plummer), to solve the case of his 16 year-old niece who has been missing since the 1960’s.  Reluctantly taking on the task, he moves up to a remote island where the girl went missing.  But before he is hired, a thorough examination is done on him by a brilliant but strange young lady named Lisabeth Salander (Mara).  Having previously dealt with several personal issues and physical abuse, Salander joins up with Blomkvist, and the two begin to try a piece together to case of a missing girl 40 years ago; taking them on an adventure through intense situations. 

            The complex and powerful plot of this film as well as its stunning cinematography and setting  make it one of the most enduring and captivating films of 2011. But the characters are the most important focal point of the film, specifically Rooney Mara.  Mara dedicates herself to this role entirely with tattoos, piercings, and hair dye, and it pays off masterfully.  This being her first major role, audiences will be impressed by her screen presence.  Although this film can be disturbing at times, it’s to be expected when you take a visionary director and a dark story and fuse them into a gripping and intense product. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is stimulating in every cinematic sense, but if things of graphic nature deter you easily, I would not recommend it.  To me, however, it is a remarkable picture on nearly every level.  A total achievement.

            Also to be noted, the score for the film was done by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and Atticus Ross, who worked together on Fincher's last film, The Social Network.  Completely unique and engaging, the music helps bring the movie alive.  Incredible work done by Ross and Reznor.  The film even features a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song.  Give it a listen below.

By Gena Markman

Utah native and "The Voice" runner up Dia Frampton has wowed audiences for years with her unique vocals and inventive lyrics in her band Meg and Dia. Now, she has come out with her very own album (December 6) to show the world that she can stand on her own two feet without bending or buckling. RED The album is definitely a fresh look of Dia Frampton.

In my opinion, there is nothing worse in an album than feeling like you are listening to the same song ten times over. However, RED is filled with a large variety including acoustic song like “Daniel” and “Trapeze”,  more folk-influence songs such as “Isabella”, fun dance music like “Don’t kick the Chair” featuring Kid Cudi, and even a country track with Blake Shelton,  her former coach on The Voice! The diversity in her album is without a doubt influenced by her several impressive writing collaborations including Mark Foster (Foster the People), Isabella Summers (Florence and the Machine), Chris Seefried, Tom Shapiro, and many more.

Though I’ve heard of buzz of concern coming from old M&D fans about her joining a mainstream label, I can honestly assure you that Dia sounds as true and purely Dia Frampton as ever before. Her single, “The Broken Ones” is a great example of the colorful, and creative lyrics that have made Meg and Dia’s music unique for years. Her sound is organic, honest, and will hit you to the core. This album demonstrates her maturity and improvement as an artist, singer, and writer. She tells stories, reminisces her past, and may even open up some of your old wounds… but be willing to listen all the way through and you will not regret it. Highly Recommended

By Tyler Headlee

Holmes is back, and with the help of Mr. Watson he will carry on with the investigation that the last adventure left off with. They are in the hunt for evidence to take down their most dangerous and vicious foe yet, Mr. Moriarty, who is killing off political figures to induce a World War. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law give truly fantastic performances and the entire movie is a mesmerizing piece of art, seamlessly flowing from one scene to the next.

The script, though sometimes hard to follow due to some vocabulary that only Nicholas Lives would understand because he is so much smarter than everyone else, is well written and the humor is well placed throughout (unlike any vague joke said by Mr. Lives). The use of slow motion is used much more in this sequel and is used to bring out greater details in scenes as well as let the audience gain a greater understanding of what is happening. The director uses Slow Motion by capturing each frame at a faster rate than usual. When played back at normal speed the video slows down.

Fantastic isn't it.

The ending is definitely one of my favorite endings of all time. I give the movie a 9.5/10. I give Nicholas Lives a 4/100,000.

P.S. plot-noun 2.Also called storyline. the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story. I've underlined it for you since its so hard to find.

P.S.S. Why don't you go and draw something pretty.

By Sierra Stark

Michael Buble recently released a Christmas album simply titled Michael Buble Christmas.  I have always liked his music and so I was eager to buy it.  As you will see from my review, I was not disappointed.

1. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas- Starting the cd out with this song was a great idea.  His charm and talent added to an already great classic.  I definitely wanted to hear more after this song!

2. Santa Claus is coming to town- Adding a little jazz to this song was a wonderful idea.  The second song was as good as the first!

3. Jingle Bells- This song featured the Puppini Sisters, and I am not sure that they were such a great choice.  Michael was great, but he could have picked someone better to accompany him.

4. White Christmas- I have never really loved this song, but I thought this was better than the version usually heard on the radio, which seems a little too whiny.

5. All I want for Christmas is you- This is one of my favorites on the cd.  I have always liked this song by Mariah Carey, but this version is even better!

6. Holly Jolly Christmas- Let's just say he was born to sing this song!

7. Santa Baby- I wondered how this song would be since it is normally sang by a woman with a crush on St. Nick, but Michael did a fun twist on the song by adding a few words of his own.  He actually refers to Santa as a buddy rather than his baby.

8. Have Yourself a merry little Christmas- Michael's voice made this version of a classic one of  my favorites. Great choice Michael!

9. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)- This is another one of my favorites.  I like the upbeat song here so that you are not bored with the slower, classic songs.

10. Silent Night- This has never been one of my favorites, but Michael did as good of a job as any with this one.  However, I like that he incorporated children singing into the song.

11. Blue Christmas- I never loved Elvis' version of this one, but I think Michael did a much better job.

12. Cold December Night- I liked this new, upbeat song.  The lyrics were well written and Michael sang it brilliantly, as always.

13. I'll Be Home For Christmas- To be honest this was not one of his best.  I thought he didn't sound true to his voice.

14. Ave Maria- This was not a typical Michael Buble sounding song, but I liked it! It was operatic, and well done.

15. Deseos/ Feliz Navidad- This version was better than the normal one heard on the radio. Thalia was a great choice for this song!

Overall I was delighted by this CD. I would recommend purchasing the one at Target so that you can get the CD with 3 bonus tracks.  Well done Michael!

By Carolyn Webber

Love stories have been around forever. We’re human; we can’t help but enjoy leaving our lives and reliving false love stories of giddiness on the screen. But a new movie has come out that seems all too real. Like Crazy is a movie about love. The couple meets, they part, they try, they fail, and yet some force keeps them together. Jacob (Anton Yelchin) and Anna (Felicity Jones) meet while in school in California. Anna, though, is not a US citizen. She’s British and is therefore constrained by the laws of her student visa. The movie follows the relationship between the two, rather than stressing on the individual characters. Like Crazy was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this past spring, and then was re-released in theatres in November. The Broadway Theatre of Salt Lake is the only theatre playing the movie in Utah.

The plot isn’t the only thing that makes the movie worth seeing. Symbolism pops up repeatedly with items- such as the chair and the word “Patience.” And it’s interesting to see how everything is totally defined by space and time. The distance between people implies the story without speaking it. Time is imperative because if something had happened just an hour or a day before, there would have been a completely different result. Time is not normal in this movie either. There are jumps between scenes which leave you guessing what happened during those missing months/years. These jumps may cause stumbling questions, which some don’t appreciate.

Critics of the movie also found the relationship and events to be unrealistic. Senior Cassidy England said, “I didn’t like the movie at all. The relationship was not realistic and it was totally awkward the entire time.” The title also doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere with the movie, besides the quote being written on the bottom of the chair. It does, however, draw somewhere from the enduring theme of love throughout the movie. In the beginning, Anna shares a quote about love in which she writes, “I thought I understood it. But I didn't. Only the smudgeness of it. The eagerness of it. The Idea of it. Of you and me.” It may seem sappy, and maybe it is. But this movie is definitely and fresh take on the traditional love story.

By Nicholas Lives

Here I am again with another first-impressions track-by-track album review.  Today's special treat is Coldplay's newest album entitled "MyloXyloto," which probably means something cool when translated to English from hipster, I'm sure.  Alright, enough time has been wasted already. Let's do this!

1. Mylo Xyloto: Wow, opening an album with the album title song is a pretty bold move there, Coldplay.  You must be fairly eager to impress me, eh?  Well let’s see just how title-worthy this oddly named song really is, shall we?  So far the tingling bells and electronic zinging are making for an appropriate build up…I like where this is going... Wait, are they saying the words “hurts like heaven?”

2. Hurts Like Heaven: Wait what happened??  We’re already on the second track?  Oh I get it; this must be one of those “musical experience” albums, where every song blends into the next seamlessly.  Hmm, channeling some Pink Floyd here are we, Coldplay? Well here’s a question: Why is the album’s title song getting relegated to a 10 second build up to the next song?  Maybe it’s just me, but I think naming the album after what basically amounts to the sound of electronic jingle bells somewhat underwhelms the listener’s expectations for the rest of the album.  Hold on a minute, is that fading I hear?

3. Paradise: Way to be consistent, Coldplay! The last song faded out completely and this song just started like it was its own independent thing!  So is this a “musical experience” or not, guys?  Oh forget it, let’s just listen.  … From what I gather by the lyrics, this song seems to be about some sort of “paradise,” but the phrase “Para-para-dise” is regularly accompanied by what sounds like a child whining at his mother. “Eeeee-Eeeeeeah-Ooooh!”  Not sure what kind of paradise this is supposed to be; maybe Coldplay just finds the sounds of spoiled infants to be particularly pleasing.

4. Charlie Brown: And there goes the last song fading out again.  Did you guys just start out wanting to make a musical experience but then found that it was a little bit too difficult to integrate all these songs into one another?  I suppose I’ll just drop it for now so we can get on with the listening of this song.  … So far I’ve sat through about a minute of this song, and I still can’t figure out what it has to do with everyone’s favorite manically depressed “Peanuts” child.  Not one mention of Charlie Brown, guys?  I keep hearing the phrase “glowing in the dark,” so if anyone can find a way to connect that to Charlie Brown, feel free to enlighten me.

5. Us Against the World: … Listening to this song, I gather this song is meant to be the political equivalent to “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” but less interesting to listen to.  You guys are up for global peace too?  Well more power to you for making a song about it, but did you have to make the song so - hold on, “It’s us against the world?”  What happened to being united with other countries?  Were you just singing about yourselves this whole time?  Well now I’m just confused.

6. M.M.I.X.:  Is that a “MIX” I see in this song’s mysterious acronym title?  Well I suppose that means we can expect a large variety of sounds and styles here, which is good news for me, because the last few songs were starting to feel a bit on the redundant side… sounds like we’re building up to something big here, I’m already getting pumped up!  And here come the guitars and vocals like a fantastic punch to the face.  Woo! Hmm.. what’s that they keep saying about teardrops and waterfalls?

7. Every Teardrop is a Waterfall: Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!  Again?  Coldplay, I thought we were over this!  Are you trying to sneak your way back into being a musical experience?  Coldplay seems to be developing a bad habit of making the mysterious sounding titled songs into pointless 10 second build ups to the next song.  Why didn’t you just incorporate the build up from M.M.I.X. into the beginning of this song?  I mean granted, this song has quite a bit of energy and enthusiasm for teardrops and waterfalls, and to be honest it’s probably the best song I’ve heard on this album thus far, but why waste an entire track on the buildup when you can just put it in the beginning of this song?  It’s either a musical experience or it isn’t Coldplay, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.  Just for that, I’m going to skip two tracks ahead because this album is beginning to test my patience.

     ---SKIP------SKIP----

10. Princess of China: Whoa, is that a woman singer I hear being incorporated into this song?  I didn’t know there was a female member in Coldplay, but her presence here is certainly a breath of fresh air after all those whiny male vocals I’ve been hearing throughout this album.  I’m not sure why, but the zinging tazer sounds in the background fantastically juxtapose the cheesy “once upon a time lyrics” that populate the foreground.  It’s like I’m listening to “Disney’s Cinderella: The Rock Opera.” 

10. Up in Flames: That last song won back my enthusiasm for this album, but this song’s incredibly repetitive lyrics and overly moody tone aren’t quite living up to my new-found expectations.  For one thing, whereas the last song actually had some sort of story to it, this song wanders off in vague and uninteresting territory.  What exactly is “up in flames,” Coldplay?  What’s that?  You don’t know because you presumably wrote the lyrics as an afterthought?

11. A Hopeful Transmission: More like, “A Hopeful Transition.” Come on Coldplay, just make up your mind already!  How many 10 second tracks are there going to be in your album, anyway?  Also, what exactly makes this song "hopeful?"

12. Don’t Let it Break Your Heart: Anyway, I guess we’re moving on to this one now.  So far it sounds like we’re flying on some electric piano carpet.  The lyrics are hard to make out due to the extreme echo applied to the vocals, which doesn’t really make sense if you think about it.  If we’re supposedly flying, why would there be an echo way up in the sky?  What’s the sound bouncing off of?  Clouds?  The last words I can actually hear in this song are something along the lines of “don’t...break your heart,” so at least I know I must have not been missing out on much having not been able to hear them earlier.  A song about hearts being broken?  Way to be original, guys.

13. Up With the Birds: Oh thank goodness we’re on the last track!  Listening to this song, it sounds like Coldplay really, really wants to be Pink Floyd.  The weird inhuman sounds echoing in the background, along with the thundering base clouding up the listener’s judgment all seem to be channeling the musical energy directly from Pink Floyd themselves.  I can’t help wonder if Coldplay is like the vampire of the music industry, sucking the blood and styles from other more popular bands in order to sustain their parasitic existence.  Of course, maybe it’s just me.

FINAL STATEMENTS: Overall, this album was... bearable.  While I didn’t feel like punching myself in the face until all remaining memory of the songs were eliminated from my brain, I have a feeling I won’t have to.  Setting aside for a moment my issue with the album being undecided on what it wants to be, most of the songs (with the exception of Princess of China) were largely unmemorable.  Even as I type this now, having just listened to the album, I’m already forgetting some of the tunes and lyrics.  Good songs can stick with you for an hour or so, but great songs stick with you forever.  Most of these songs did neither.  Better luck next time, Coldplay.

Overall Score:2 rockin'-Cinderellas out of 5.

By Jaren Jolley

The work of Billy Beane is one that some might not be familiar with, yet he did something for the sport of baseball that changed it forever.  Moneyball tells his story.  Beane (played by Brad Pitt), the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, takes a new strategy in the business of baseball that many find incorrect and just plain stupid.  With the enormous help of a young economic grad from Yale, Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill), Beane forms an entirely new roster for the Athletics, consisting of players that the MLB has completely disregarded and undervalued, creating an unorthodox yet stellar team.  As Beane creates a truly unique and game-changing business model in the baseball world, he takes on the emotional toils of dealing with his new players, the head honchos of the baseball world, and his own demons from his past of being involved in baseball at an early age that alter his life forever.  And the personal life he maintains with young daughter is a nice contrasting point from his hectic life, and helps Beane stay focused on what matters in life.

                Although this film is about the Oakland Athletics’ advancements and its GM, it actually has little to do with the sport.  The film relies on the powerful emotions and innovations of characters, the beautiful pace, and unfurling of the story.  With direct, controlled, and modern direction/ cinematography that play off the characters’ frustrations, decisions, and joys, the film has you fully engaged throughout, making the movie truly innovative and fresh.   A culmination of these cinematic variables makes Moneyball one of the greatest films of the years.  Pitt’s enormous presence is felt on screen constantly, assisted by Hill’s innocence and stellar minimalistic acting.  The style and plot have an appropriate sense of grandeur yet the viewer has a consistent feeling of accessibility, and although it revolves around this one character in his ambition and fragility, less truly is more.  You’ll not want to miss this film.  Extremely highly recommended.