2019 Favorites II • August 28, 2019
High Flying Bird 🏀⛹️♂️
Welcome back and happy Wednesday! Today, we’re continuing this week’s theme of 2019 favorites with a Netflix Original by Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Trilogy, Erin Brockovich).
Swish swish.
High Flying Bird
STREAMING ON NETFLIX
What’s it about: High Flying Bird isn’t about basketball, but rather the business of basketball. During an NBA lockout, a sports agent (Andre Holland) politics his way through deals and negotiations to make sure his rookie client (Melvin Gregg) gets his time on the court — that’s a basketball term right?
Why it’s great: Clearly, I know next to nothing about basketball. But I was still hooked while watching High Flying Bird. It doesn’t give away its true intentions until the very end, that doesn’t make the journey to get there any less compelling. Steven Soderbergh is a master of storytelling and makes this drama feel like a high stakes heist movie. He’s also given an incredible screenplay to work with from Moonlight‘s Oscar-winning screenwriter Tarrell Alvin McCraney.
The key players:
🎬 Steven Soderbergh
🖋 Tarrell Alvin McCraney
🎭 Andre Holland, Melvin Gregg, Zazie Beetz, Kyle MacLachlan
The details: ⏳ 91 minutes // 🇺🇸 United States // 📝 My full review
Fun fact: The entire movie was shot on an iPhone 8. It’s the second movie Soderbergh filmed on an iPhone after 2018’s Unsane.
Don’t have Netflix? Unfortunately, since High Flying Bird is a Netflix original it isn’t available to buy or rent.
In movie news:
Forget Endgame. Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman will have a 210 minute runtime.
Filming has wrapped on the ninth movie in the Saw franchise. This installment stars Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock — he also has a story credit.
The second trailer and a new poster for Todd Phillips’ Joker were released today:
