I was a bit of a the-book-was-better snob when this first came out. (I was also disappointed we didn’t get Soderbergh’s version, which sounded really interesting.) Now I can see this is a satisfying sports movie, albeit one that fudges the details to sweep the viewer up in its grand narrative. (A’s players won the American League MVP and Cy Young Awards in 2002, a fact you would never know from this movie, because neither of the winners is given more than a ing mention in favor of portraying the team as the MLB equivalent of the Bad News Bears. )

Attempting to give the film that sort of lovable losers uplift is an odd fit for this story, as the A’s had plenty of great players and also they didn‘t even get to the ALCS in 2002, much less the World Series. But there’s a melancholy to the film, too, in all the disappointments big (the A’s go on a 20-game winning streak that ultimately means nothing) and small (some of the very same players sabermetrics pinpoints as A’s saviors are the ones Billy Beane trades away for almost nothing mid-season, and each one has a family, a livelihood, and dreams of their own). Those moments work well, and even better now, given where the no-longer-Oakland Athletics have wound up in the last few years.

Related: The Alamo should host a Brad Pitt film festival of movies where he eats constantly while serving attendees the various foods he is seen shoving into his mouth.