DVD Reviews: Moneyball | Snowtown

The Scotsman film critic Alistair Harkness offers us his take on the latest DVD releases

Moneyball

Sony, £17.99

FEW of this year’s big awards contenders were as purely pleasurable as Moneyball. The Brad Pitt-starring, Aaron Sorkin-scripted baseball statistics movie may have had its subject matter going against it, but that didn’t stop it being an exhilarating film. As Billy Beane, the real-life manager of cash-strapped Major League team The Oakland A’s, he gives a big, engaging, movie star turn that makes full use of his natural charisma and charm, yet also burrows beneath the surface in such a way that you forget you’re watching Pitt and see instead a bittersweet portrait of man plagued by anxieties as he tries to do the right thing.

Like the tech-talk in The Social Network and the policy speak in The West Wing, Moneyball’s impenetrable baseball terminology is presented as a barrage of discordant notes at first, but as your ear becomes attuned to it, it’s transformed into an exposition-burying symphony of real beauty and feeling, so much so that it doesn’t really matter if you never completely understand phrases like “getting on base”; the sense of authenticity these things confers enhances the emotional drama being played out on screen. It’s brilliant, compelling stuff.

Snowtown

Revolver, £15.99

Also brilliant, but by no means pleasurable, is Snowtown. Based on the true story of Australia’s most notorious serial killer, Justin Kurzel’s debut film offers a bleak, brutal exploration of the way morality can be skewed and innocence corrupted by neglect, hardship and the presence of a charismatic psychopath. Told from the naïve perspective of 16-year-old Jamie Vlassakis (Lucas Pittaway), the film begins with Jamie and his younger brothers being abused by a neighbour. When his mother’s new boyfriend, John Bunting (Daniel Henshall), gets wind of it, he charges in like a white knight, driving said creep out of the neighbourhood and inveigling his way into their lives. He also becomes de facto leader of the local, poverty-stricken community, whose collective homophobic prejudices find expression in his bullish talk about keeping the streets safe. Just how far he’s prepared to go to achieve the latter is gradually unveiled. Kurzel implements restraint, favouring a dispassionate approach over gory thrills. The effect is uncomfortable but unforgettable.

ALISTAIR HARKNESS

l To order these DVDs, call The Scotsman on 01634 832789