MONEYBALL

Dir: Bennett Miller -Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman

While it was vying for Oscar honours, the backers of Moneyball tried to convince people it wasn't so much a film about baseball, just a film with baseball as the backdrop. Well that's rubbish. Moneyball is absolutely about baseball. But don't let that put you off – it's a lot of fun.

Where Moneyball departs from your regular sports movie is that it's not so much about what is happening on the field. It's about the backroom stuff – picking the players, selecting the team – and it has found the perfect example of a management underdog story.

Pitt plays Oakland Athletics' manager Billy Beane, stuck with a middling team with no chance to advance because the game is all about money and his side will never have enough to afford the best players. Enter new Yale grad Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) who has worked out a system to analyse players statistically, ignoring current wisdom about hiring 'the best”. Together they see off the doubters and, with little money to work with, turn the game on its head.

It is, I understand, a true story, but the real pleasure is in watching Brad Pitt at his considerably charming best. Like George Clooney, he really is nailing it these days. Hill makes a great foil and there is a strong support cast.

This is a well-made piece of drama, with all the class you would expect of a screenplay that comes from Steve Zaillian (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network).

The world's dumbest wannabe criminals (Danny McBride, Nick Swardson) kidnap a slacker smalltown pizza delivery boy (Jesse Eisenberg) in 30 Minute or Less. They want him to rob a bank for them. He, in turn, enlists his best friend (Aziz Ansari) and general chaos and confusion ensue. Coming from Ruben Fleischer, director of Zombieland, this is a short (80 minutes) sharp blast of disrespectful comedy, running on the frequently very funny improvisational interplay between the four leads. They bring a real zing to proceedings, keeping you invested in the characters even as implausibilities mount.

Coming from the Tribal Alliance and the band of Mission Indians, writer/director/actor Georgina Lightning's American Evil takes an unsurprisingly Native American perspective on strange reservation events, kicked off by a schoolteacher's frightening visions. These lead her, along with visiting earthquake specialist Bradley Cooper, to a mysterious old schoolhouse where Bad Things Happened. A mass of past wrongdoings is uncovered in a somewhat heavy-handed collision of religion, politics and the supernatural but, best intentions aside, this is not a well-made film, blandly shot, indifferently written and acted.

Ned is the nicest guy in the world, though not the smartest or most motivated. He is Our Idiot Brother, forced to stay with each of his three sisters after being dumped by his girlfriend (who even keeps his dog, Willie Nelson). They're a self-involved bunch, enough to drive anyone crazy, who naturally end up blaming the good-natured slacker for their problems. Life lessons are subsequently learnt. The iffy concept is aided immeasurably by Paul Rudd's charming central turn while the classy likes of Emily Mortimer, Elizabeth Banks, Zoey Deschanel and Steve Coogan make the most of a somewhat wandering script.

Burning Man is a terrific-looking film. An Aussie outing, it follows Matthew Goode's out-of-control Bondi chef as he behaves increasingly irresponsibly towards his young son and everyone else around. But a portentous and spectacularly filmed opening car crash and the non-linear cut-up narrative suggest that there are weightier issues at play. What eventually emerges is an artily-constructed and quite moving study of grief and love. That very artiness will either attract or frustrate, particularly given the unhurried pacing.