HIGH FLYING BIRD Review
Steven Soderbergh is in his own world. Since the early 90’s the prolific filmmaker has subtly but surely crafted and molded films to the tunes of his own unique tastes. From the works I’ve seen, the filmmaker has a funny way of filling his films with a subtle kind of style that seems “too cool” for the viewer; right up until the viewer and Soderbergh actually click, like the quiet cool kid finally letting you in on his jokes. Indeed, as the film industry seemingly sways from one trend to another, Soderbergh himself tinkers away with random shit that always manage to feel as boundary breaking as any tentpole film being released in theaters.
To this tune, Soderbergh’s first film for Netflix, HIGH FLYING BIRD, acts as another feather in the filmmaker’s cap that is just what one would expect of the director while still managing to hold a few sly tricks up its sleeve. With a snappy and fast-paced screenplay coming courtesy of MOONLIGHT scribe Tarell Alvin McCrane, HIGH FLYING BIRD finds its center in its wheeling and dealing protagonist, hot shot sports agent Ray Burke (a wonderfully suave Andre Holland), who finds his success threatened with the looming lockout occurring between the NBA and its players and sponsors. With his highly touted NBA rookie client (Melvin Gregg) nipping at his heels looking for answers on whether or not he’ll even play and the threat of unemployment even closer, Ray quickly scrambles to put a plan together that will stave off chaos for all parties involved.
As the film moves along (and boy does this thing move as fast as Ray’s dealings), Soderbergh’s film allows McCrane’s script and story to reveal the personal motivations of its main character in addition to something close to a critique of the racially tinged workings between the NBA and its African American players. While some may be caught up in the filmmaker’s actual technique when it comes to the actual production of this film, which was entirely shot on an iPhone camera, the true shining moments of the film arise from McCrane’s script. At its base, the writer crafts a compelling “race against time” tale that allows Soderbergh to move the film as quickly as LeBron James in the open court. From there, McCrane slowly but surely brings audiences into just what Ray is planning and why he is pulling what he is about to pull, which turns out to be for both personal and league-changing reasons. Just like the final reveal at the end of the film, McCrane and Soderbergh take part in a two-man game to craft a genuinely thrilling movie that moves beyond a simple tale of people trying to get paid into a work that careens into a meta analysis on the state of professional sports and the growing power of an incoming streaming era.
Nevertheless, even a film supported by two all-stars such as Soderbergh and McCrane, like any NBA team, still needs a solid supporting cast and here, quite literally, HIGH FLYING BIRD delivers. In the starring role of the film, Mr. Holland once again proves to be a magnetizing presence on screen, his deep emotional eyes giving audiences a tantalizing glimpse into the tragedy motivating his silver tongued agent. Like any good sports agent, Holland makes you simmer in his words as he dazzles and maneuvers on any way to get you in his grip. It doesn’t always work out for his character, but to watch it all go down as a film-goer, the results are always intoxicating. Elsewhere, other performers get their time to shine and chew on McCrane’s snappy and worldly dialogue from the likes of Gregg’s engaging role as Ray’s naive yet centered star client to Zazie Beetz as Ray’s former assistant Sam, a woman looking to make her own shattering moves in the sports agency world.
Whatever the character or performance, everyone in McCrane’s script is just looking for their next paycheck but the reasons on why they want to get paid slowly form the intriguing thesis of Ray’s (and possibly McCrane’s) idea of a new world filled with players who truly retain their independence in the face of monolithic corporations. Granted, this notion seems a little ironic considering this film, from a filmmaker who still retains his own “independent” air, premiered and now exclusively streams on a monolithic streaming giant. But I’ll give Soderbergh and his crew the benefit of the doubt here as HIGH FLYING BIRD still feels like a boundary pushing film (and sly critique) in both topic and execution as the director literally gets a company like Netflix to pay him to make a film filmed entirely on an iPhone about pushing for more professional player independence. Nevertheless, even with the still visible constraints of filming on a smartphone (namely, weird unseemly coloring and lighting), Soderbergh displays a steady craft in making this film visually enticing. Like it’s main character, the camera moves with a stylistic grace that nonetheless lets in bouts of frazzled framing and cutting that further reinforce the franticness of Ray’s predicament. But just like Ray, Soderbergh lets the audience drop their guard only to gleefully reveal that he was in control from the start.
Whether you see past the games of both Ray and Soderbergh or not, it would be hard to not be impressed by the fluidity put on display by all parties of HIGH FLYING BIRD. Soderbergh may not escape the incoming wave of commercialization in his industry but if there’s one thing that this film proves, it’s that Soderbergh is always playing his own unique game and he’s just waiting for the rest of us to catch on.
4/5
