Stories That Stick continues with the start of our True Stories theme, and this week Cade brings Moneyball — the real-life story of Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s as they attempt to rebuild a failing team using analytics instead of tradition. Cade chose this film because it perfectly reflects his own love for logic, metrics, and decision-making rooted in data rather than emotion. The movie follows Billy, a former player who regrets choosing baseball over a full-ride education, as he fights to build a competitive roster with almost no budget after losing his three star athletes.

The heart of the discussion centers around Billy’s unexpected partnership with Peter Brand, a young economics grad whose statistical model focuses on one thing: how often players get on base. Scouts rely on instincts, vibes, attractiveness, and outdated criteria, while Peter brings a system that exposes how wrong those instincts can be. Cade and Kit talk through how the film captures the conflict between old-school baseball thinking and innovation, and how Billy faces enormous resistance from scouts, management, and especially the coach, who refuses to play the players chosen through analytics.

The team struggles at first because the coach actively sabotages Billy’s vision, sticking to his own favourites and ignoring the data. Billy ultimately forces alignment by trading away the players the coach insists on using, leaving him no choice but to play the analytics lineup. This shift leads to the incredible 20-game winning streak that becomes the centerpiece of the film — a streak that proves the model works even if the league hates admitting it. Cade and Kit unpack how leadership, pressure, and conviction all show up in Billy’s choices, and why going against the grain demands both grit and risk tolerance.

A major part of the conversation explores the Red Sox offering Billy a record-breaking $12.5M contract to bring the Moneyball model to Boston. Kit argues she would’ve taken the job for the resources and scalability, while Cade highlights the emotional reasons Billy declined: his daughter, his regret about chasing money earlier in life, and his desire to win with the A’s on his own terms. The irony, of course, is that Boston wins the World Series the next year using his model.

Cade and Kit also touch on the acting, noting that the story itself is stronger than the performances. Cade didn’t find Brad Pitt’s portrayal particularly memorable, while Kit loved Jonah Hill’s quieter role and the film’s overall pacing. Together, they agree it’s a great story with lighter execution — more of a “smart movie” than an emotional one.

Kit rates Moneyball a 7.5 for its innovation and message, while Cade gives it a 6.5 for being a strong story but not something he’d rewatch for the performances. It’s an episode about data, leadership, and challenging the norms — and a great start to the true-story arc in Season Three.

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Cade chose The Time Traveler’s Wife, a time-travel film built not on machines, portals, or sci-fi tech, but on a genetic disorder that causes Henry to involuntarily jump through time. The movie ties the mechanics of time travel directly to the emotional core of a love story—one where unpredictability, danger, and absence shape every part of the relationship. Kit and Cade talk through how the film weaves together Henry’s traumatic childhood, the loss of his mother, and how he grows up learning survival skills because every jump leaves him stranded, naked, and in danger. They highlight how the story makes time travel feel intimate, not cosmic.

The emotional weight of the movie comes from Clare’s timeline: she’s known older versions of Henry since childhood, growing up with brief flashes of the man she’ll eventually marry. When she meets the younger version of him in the present, he has no idea who she is—a reversal that becomes one of the film’s main tensions. They walk through the details that keep the timeline grounded: Clare’s artwork evolving in the background of their home, the paper-making books from her first scene, the repetition of the clothes she leaves for him in the meadow. The jumps become a way of showing the uneven toll the relationship takes—failed pregnancies, the realization their daughter is time-traveling in the womb, and Henry disappearing for weeks at a time.

Near the end, Henry discovers the timeline of his own death and begins preparing everyone around him without ever truly revealing the truth. Cade and Kit pause here to talk about the film’s biggest emotional theme: would you want to know the date of your own death? Cade says absolutely not—it would pressure every moment. Kit says yes—she’d use that knowledge to be more present and intentional. The movie closes on Henry’s death and the later moment where a younger version of him appears to Clare and Alba one last time, tying the story together with a soft emotional release rather than a sci-fi twist.

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In this episode, Cade and Kit continue Season 3 with a brand-new theme: Time Travel. Kit brings The Adjustment Bureau, a sci-fi romance starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt that blends secret organizations, alternate paths, and the tension between fate and free will. The two break down why this movie stands out in the time-travel genre, how it uses space instead of timeline jumps, and why the love story works in a way most sci-fi films don’t attempt.

The episode begins with Cade and Kit explaining why they chose to explore themes in Season 3 — specifically how their personal lens shapes the way they review films. When Kit introduces The Adjustment Bureau, she explains that it’s her first instinct when thinking about time-travel movies, not because of traditional past/future jumps, but because the film explores three different layers of “time”: the real world, the Bureau’s invisible grid, and the alternate paths a person could take depending on their choices.

They discuss Matt Damon’s character, David Norris, and how his life is carefully managed — first by political consultants, then by the Bureau itself, who manipulate events to ensure he stays on a predetermined path. After losing an election, David meets Elise in a bathroom in a chaotic, unfiltered moment that changes the direction of his life. The second accidental meeting triggers the Bureau’s intervention, forcing David into a confrontation with the group responsible for adjusting reality.

Cade and Kit break down the world-building, including the hats that allow agents to travel through a hidden network of doors across New York, and the rules that keep David and Elise apart. They discuss the idea that both characters have “intended” destinies: he is meant to become President, she is meant to become a world-renowned choreographer — and how the Bureau believes their relationship would prevent both outcomes.

The hosts explore the tension between fate and autonomy, and why the love story succeeds: Elise sees David as he truly is, not the polished political version of himself, and he doesn’t try to refine or reshape her. Cade notes that many of their scenes were improvised, which contributes to the authenticity of their chemistry. Kit appreciates that the sci-fi elements are grounded: no machines, no creature designs, just the manipulation of time and space through doorways.

They also critique the film. Kit would have preferred a darker, more ominous tone for the Bureau and a deeper depiction of David’s confusion, fear, and uncertainty after discovering their existence. She notes that certain emotional beats — such as his three-year search for Elise on the bus — could have used more on-screen weight.

Cade adds that he’d like to see a companion film told from the perspective of the sympathetic Bureau agent who helps David, since the character clearly carries his own emotional history and doubts about the system.

A grounded, stylish sci-fi romance that plays with “time travel” in a different way: not through decades, but through doorways, detours, and the small adjustments that can alter a life. A strong pick for a theme centered on how cinema reshapes our understanding of time.

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