Mr. Pitt couples a star presence there's a singular there there whenever the A's general manager is in camera range to a beautifully measured ensemble performance that makes Billy a minimalist ironist, tossing off funny remarks with an abandon that almost conceals his deep anger, pain or self-doubt.
The entire movie teeters on the edge of sick comedy in particular such scenes as the death of the Goebbels children, one by one, at the hands of their mother and at times one longs for a coldly malicious ironist like Brecht or Fassbinder to come in and take over.