"Play the Game on top of the Game." This is High Flying Bird. This sports drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, from a story suggested by André Holland. When an NBA lockout sidelines his big rookie client, an agent hatches a bold plan to save their careers - and disrupt the league's power structure.
In October 2017, the project was announced with Soderbergh in the director's chair, McCraney writing the script from a story by André Holland, who is also set to star. By February 2018, Zazie Beetz, Melvin Gregg, Sonja Sohn, Zachary Quinto, Glenn Fleshler, Jeryl Prescott, Justin Hurtt-Dunkley, Caleb McLaughlin, Bobbi Bordley, Kyle MacLachlan and Bill Duke rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in mid March. With a budget of $2 million, filming took place in New York City and was shot using an iPhone 8 smartphone, equipped with an anamorphic lens produced by Moondog Labs. This is the second film Soderbergh shot on an iPhone following Unsane (2018). In September, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film.
The film stars Holland, Beetz, Gregg, Sohn, Quinto, Fleshler, Prescott, Hurtt-Dunkley, McLaughlin, Bordley, MacLachlan and Duke. Knowing that some of cinema's greatest performances are in sports movies, Soderbergh turns the film into a vehicle for Holland's superstar presence. Holland's performance is solid!
High Flying Bird makes for a good sports drama, and it does so in a very self-aware way. Soderbergh is one of the most dexterous directors working in the American mainstream, and he has a sly talent for lacing even a seemingly disposable genre offering with smart, incisive ideas. It's a clever film. And for all Soderbergh's reservations about Hollywood, it's also confirmation of his mastery of its assorted genres, although he does suffer from an urge to see if he can juggle them all at the same time. It's a liberating experience and a technical challenge for the director, I'm sure. It's a well-shot film for an iPhone film, the muddy, grainy sensation speaks well to Burke's ambitions. Fans of experimentive cinema and quality thrillers would best be doing themselves a favour by seeking it out, if not for anything other than Holland's deeply devoted performance. The formal playfulness may occasionally undermine the film's narrative, but it keeps the movie engaging on a visual level. It's an experiment with great results. This is what Soderbergh's latest entry feels like. Holland is remarkable. Above all, Soderbergh revels, with palpable joy, in his repertory of distorted yet lurid images, making a credible movie that signifies nothing but the irrepressible vitality of the cinema itself. Soderbergh's experiment is a success. The whole idea, as an experiment, is interesting, but the film lacks in credibility what it gains in boldness. Hopefully with an open mid, this is obvious example of how technology can be used to make something bold and imaginative will be embraced. Overall, the film is pretty decent and I think it's worth watching; it just might blow your mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment