Movie Review: High Flying Bird

High Flying Bird

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Starring: André Holland, Melvin Gregg, Zazie Beetz, Bill Duke, Sonja Sohn,

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 90 minutes

Last year, the Steven Soderbergh-directed psycho-thriller Unsane was released. It was a film that was notable pre-release by the feature length movie filmed entirely on an iPhone (7 Plus, to be exact). Unsane was one of my favorite movies of last year, and I thought the unique camera choice ended up lending itself to the narrative with its strange home-movie-feeling shots at times adding to the level of suspense in scenes.

This year, Soderbergh returns with a new script and an updated iPhone to give us High Flying Bird. The latest Netflix Original, Soderbergh’s newest flick tells a story of passion, drive, and devotion to your cause with a dash of black empowerment set to the backdrop of the NBA lockout.

André Holland (well-known for his role in Moonlight) stars as Ray Burke, an agent representing different professional athletes including the NBA #1 draft pick Erik Scott (Melvin Gregg). The majority of the film follows Ray navigating through the NBA lockout and trying to keep his players happy while also attempting to change the game altogether.

While the script (and subsequently the plot) of this movie are key to its success, the real strength of movies like this and Unsane are the actors’ performances. Soderbergh has created a unique film style with iPhones that feels both professional and amateur at the same time. His movies have an almost Youtube quality to them, and at the same time you can tell an experienced director is behind the camera rather than any old Joe Schmoe. But to really sell the movie as a feature film and not an online video your actors have to bring their A-game to the table in order to give the smart dialogue the weight it needs to really hit home. In Unsane Claire Foy gave an amazing performance as the increasingly-anxious protagonist navigating her way through an asylum with her stalker, and here in High Flying Bird each of the major actors in the movie give great performances as well.

Ray is the ambitious protagonist with a troubled past that we need to keep the narrative momentum strong, but Sam (Zazie Beetz), Ray’s equally-if-not-more-ambitious ex-assistant and Erik are also strong characters that add a lot to the story. I love Beetz in just about everything I’ve seen her in, but I was impressed to see Gregg step up in a bigger role than the Vine and Youtube videos I’d seen him in previously. He doesn’t quite carry the same gravitas as the other actors, but he’s definitely doing a great job in his performance and I hope to see more of him in the future. Bill Duke and Sonja Sohn are also two veteran actors who know how to give strong performances (which they both do here), but aside from Holland, Duke was easily my favorite character of the movie. There are also some small cameos with recognizable actors like Zachary Quinto, Caleb McLaughlin, and Kyle MacLachlan which are all enjoyable.

This movie does a lot right and not very much wrong. It has a very minimal soundtrack which lends itself well to the home-video-esque feeling of the film. At times it feels more like we’re following real people rather than characters. My biggest criticism of the film is that even though Soderbergh does a great job with his iPhone, there are just some unavoidable drawbacks to the medium such as some bad sound at times or some blurred shots during motion but it’s not enough to deduct serious points from the film. Overall, I had a great time with this film and can’t wait to see what Soderbergh is able to do with something like an iPhone X in the future.