Category Archives: Entertainment

Moneyball – Movie Review

Moneyball, based on the book of the same title, is a movie about a baseball team manager, Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), in his quest to build a formidable team that can go through the year long tournament. To do so, he enlists the help of Yale economics graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), who has a theory that building a team not based on a player’s reputation but based on his statistical averages is the way to go. The idea proves tantalizing for Beane seeing as his team, the Oakland Athletics, has a very dismal budget to begin with. As he put it, “There are the rich teams, then there are the poor teams, then there’s 50 feet of crap, and then there’s us.”

So instead of splurging on A-list players, Beane hunts down players whose days are apparently behind them. Some have nerve injuries to their elbows, some are too old to play and others have a bad reputation behind them. The critics will rise against Beane and his experiment but he perseveres in an attempt to prove everyone wrong. Moneyball is based on a true story.

To say Brad Pitt delivers a tour de force performance as Billy Beane would be an understatement. I have not watched all the Oscar nominated actors yet but I can safely say that among all the actors who have gotten and are getting award-hype this season, Brad Pitt is without a doubt my favorite so far. He’s being pitted against George Clooney in The Descendants (check my review) as the frontrunners. No offense to George Clooney but Pitt’s performance is lightyears better. It is more engaging, more thrilling, more interesting, more nuanced. It is exquisite. He portrays his character with the exact amount of strength and emotion that it needs. At times, he shows Beane’s fragile side as he faces the looming fear of failure and at other times, as he sits in the changing rooms behind the stadium, he shows undeniable resolve. Sometimes he shows both in one frame. You can actually say that Moneyball is Billy Beane and Billy Beane is Moneyball. The symbiosis between this character and the movie is that strong. Brad Pitt embodies Billy Beane perfectly.

Jonah Hill is very interesting as well as Beane’s assistant. His performance has been rightfully nominated for many awards, including an Oscar. In fact, one of the driving forces for Moneyball is the chemistry exhibited on screen by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill’s characters. Philip Seymour Hoffman, as the Athletics’ manager, is great as always in a more silent yet comical performance.

Moneyball has a great screenplay as well, as only can be expected from The Social Network‘s Aaron Sorkin (check my review of The Social Network) and Steven Zaillian, responsible for this year’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (check my review), to accompany the all star cast it enlists. The movie flows smoothly, never feels slow. And for a movie about baseball, a sport that I don’t particularly understand, it rises above the toughness of the game and turns this movie into one that is truly heartfelt, comical at times and entertaining throughout.

At the end of the day, Moneyball isn’t a movie about baseball as it is about changing the game, defying the system and breaking the boundaries imposed by other people on you. It is a movie that defies the baseball genre in which many people categorize it and rises above every single other baseball movie ever made. In fact, Moneyball might even be the best sports-related movie ever made because it doesn’t dwell on the technicalities of the sports it portrays, it rises above it to show a humanitarian aspect that everyone can relate to.

9/10

 

A Lebanese Parody on the State of the Music Industry: 7assesne Enne Rkheesa

The lyrics for this “song” have been circulating around for a while now. And now there’s a video to boot. For those who thought the lyrics were actually serious, fear not. They are but a parody on the over-sexualizing in the music industry today, be it American pop or Lebanese music.

Trust me, I wanted to dismiss this as a gimmick but they do have a point, somehow, somewhere.

For non-Lebanese readers, the title “7assesne enne rkhisa” translates to “Make Me Feel Cheap,” which is how the people who did this believe music nowadays represents women.

Check the video:

I’m sure it won’t put a dent in the trend of music today. But at least people are noticing that there are less and less songs you can listen to with another person on radio without feeling awkward about their content. Case in point: Rihanna’s latest album has more than numerous proclamations of “F*** me.” Even the reviewers of that album said they felt self-conscious listening to it. I did not bother reviewing it.

Guess I’ll return to my safe country music bubble now. Good Girl, anyone?

Lara Fabian coming to Lebanon After All?

Honestly this is getting quite confusing.

After demands to cancel Lara Fabian’s concerts and stop her from coming, the Italian-Belgian singer complied and wrote a passionate love letter to her Lebanese audience saying she won’t be a reason for tension between them.

And just when we thought the whole Lara Fabian saga is behind us, it looks like the story refuses to go away. Lara Fabian is coming for her concerts on valentine’s day and February 15th after all, according to a very heated article reposted by Lebanon Files from Al Akhbar (The article comprises the sentences: Lara Fabian not coming to the country that got Israel to kneel, etc…). You only need to read the last paragraph to see exactly how much they hate her.

Briefly, Fabian and her crew got visas to enter the country, Virgin Megastores are still selling tickets and the billboards on highways have not been removed.

I won’t go into how ridiculous and absolutely hilarious I think the statements containing “usurping entity” and “concert” in the same syntax. But this is going to be interesting to watch. And for those of us who simply can’t afford to splurge on Lara Fabian, time to bring out the pop corn and watch.

Lara Fabian’s concert organizers to BDS: “check.”

The Descendants – Movie Review

Alexandre Payne’s first movie in seven years is about Matt King (George Clooney), a Hawaii based lawyer and the trustee over his family’s pristine lands, worth in the billions of dollars, as they are about to sell. However, tragedy hits Matt’s family when a boating accident strikes his wife Elizabeth and she becomes comatose. It is then that Matt has to deal with his two daughters Scottie and Alex (Shaileene Woodley in a brilliant role), except that he always thought of himself as the “backup parent.” And after learning that his wife will never wake up, Matt has to set out on the path to say goodbye.

But as Matt’s older daughter Alex reveals, her mother was having an affair with a real-estate agent named Brian Speer, with the intention of asking for divorce. The Descendants then becomes Matt’s obsession with finding Speer, to see the man who was taking his wife away from him and to allow him the chance to bid her farewell.

Telling it like this, The Descendants seem like a true tear-jerker, right? Well, no. The movie is flimsy. This is a movie that wants to confront painful truths about love, loss, family, yet there’s a sense of emotional brittleness present throughout. It attempts to build itself as an emotional tour de force for the viewer but comes crashing down without satisfying neither itself nor the viewer in question. Even the scene, which is supposed to be the movie’s highlight, of Matt talking to his comatose wife, seeking catharsis, ends flat amid all the emotional dryness of the previous acts.

Perhaps The Descendant‘s biggest mistake, of sorts, is the fact that you can’t relate emotionally to the movie’s centerpiece: the wife who’s dying. After learning that she was cheating on him, you get disconnected from her character and, in a movie that is almost two hours, there isn’t enough character development to let you perhaps give her a reprieve, even as she lays in the hospital bed on life-support.

George Clooney’s character is extremely like-able. His performance that drives this character is top notch, nuanced and engaging. And yet, you just can’t bring yourself to care for anything he does, which is more of the shortcomings of the story around which his character is built. The story alludes to his shortcomings as a father, husband, and yet never showcases them. He is the man hurt by his wife’s betrayal as he tries to say goodbye and deal with the responsibilities his new situation has forced on him. But it’s just not convincing enough. The movie is centered around him. You end the movie not knowing anything more than what you did as the movie started.
And it’s just that… The Descendants may be a good movie in absolute value but its heart and your heart regarding its characters are as far apart as it can get. It tries to be sentimental but it turns out to be comical. And when it tries to be comical, it comes off as satirical. I doubt Alexandre Payne wanted his first movie in seven years to be such a mess. It’s a shame, really, especially with all the acclaim it’s been getting.

6/10

 

Carrie Underwood Reveals New Single. And It’s Called…

“Good Girl.”

As she had hinted before, Carrie Underwood wasn’t misleading her fans. Her first single off her upcoming album is indeed titled: “Good Girl,” as Carrie announced via a video shared exclusively with members of her fan club.

Good Girl is one of the titles included in the list of songs I had posted before that Carrie had co-wrote for the 4th album. You can check the full list here. The song was written by Carrie Underwood, Ashley Gorley and Chris DeStefano. Previous hits of the former include Carrie Underwood’s own “All-American Girl” and the latter has cuts such as “Let Me Down” on Kelly Clarkson’s newest album, Stronger.

I’m personally not a big fan of the title. However, after Carrie’s own comments regarding the material on this album being darker, edgier and among the best she’s ever written, I don’t think the single will disappoint. I think the title will most probably be wordplay à la “Crazy Girl” by Ely Young Band: “Crazy girl, don’t you know that I love you… I love you like crazy, girl.” Although I do expect Carrie’s material to be much more interesting than that. Her enthusiasm about the song is enough to signal so.

I do, however, love the single cover:

Yup, Carrie Underwood’s a “good girl” and she’s flaunting it.

Here’s the online confirmation:

And the video from the Fan Club:

The song will be sent for adds on Country radio on February 23rd. And according to this description by Country Music is Love, the song is “pretty rocking.”

Or you can read Carrie’s own words about it:

“We went into the writing session thinking we need to write something that just kicks butt, and Chris DeStefano, one of the writers is — I call him a little mad scientist on all of his Pro Tools stuff — he, like, plays every instrument you could possibly think of, and he, like, started makin’ this track, and we started…we just went. It was fast. We wrote it fast, and it’s just fun! It’s upbeat, it’s fun, you stomp your feet, and you can dance to it. It’s got this really rockin’ verse, and this really, like, rockin’ country chorus. So, it’s just a really cool song.”