21 Best Films Of The 21st Century By Genre

While Jerry Maguire laid the groundwork for the exploration of sports agents and the behind the scenes world of the sporting world in cinema, this 2011 Biographical film takes it to a whole new level. Moneyball explores Billy Beane's tenure as the general manager of the Oakland Baseball team and the then unorthodox methods he used to develop a successful team.

The film concentrates on Beane's relationship with economics graduate Peter Brand, who devises an economic model to maximise the quality of players for the Oakland team. The combination of mathematical theory with discussions on Baseball, perhaps the two most boring topics in the world, sounds like a recipe for slumber.

But thanks to an engaging and witty screenplay, wonderful performances from Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill and superb direction throughout from the criminally underrated Bennett Miller, this film flies by in an absorbing fashion. The lack of a tacky 'and that's how they won the championship ending' only adds to the cinematic experience. Instead we get a more relatable, subdued ending for Beane that matches his character arc of always striving for more.

There were many other worthy entries here for best Sports film, in particular the Creed movies which brought some unexpected life back to the Rocky franchise. The other sports film unlucky not to win gold here is The Wrestler, featuring an incredible Mickey Rourke performance and one of the saddest endings in film history.