422: High Flying Bird

[00:00:00] 129. Let's get to the third of seven Soderbergh films I'm covering. Let's get to High Flying Bird, which is a Netflix original done by Soderbergh of course stars Andre Holland, Melvin Gregg, Eddie Tavares, Zazie Beetz, Zachary Quinto, two

[00:00:21] others and the synopsis is during a pro basketball lockout a sports agent pitches a rookie basketball client on an intriguing and controversial business proposition. So when this one came out I had already seen Unsane which I just

[00:00:37] covered on the last episode and I was a big fan of that I was like okay cool another iPhone shot film by Soderbergh, I'm there and being released on Netflix it was easy to access and I've seen it twice now I think it's gone up on

[00:00:53] rewatch the first time I saw it was like yeah not amazing but and I don't think the movie is amazing overall anyways but it has gone up a little bit on rewatch and the iPhone aspect of the movie I like I think it looks good I think it's

[00:01:09] shot well it's directed well I really don't even notice it all that often I think I probably notice the iPhone style less than I did in Unsane and so all that works I'm not against anything like that I appreciate the experimentation I

[00:01:25] think the biggest issue overall not that it's a huge problem and it's very much a personal perspective is that the script is very closed off very contained very in the world of NBA terminology and lingo and so if you aren't well versed in

[00:01:46] NBA culture and history which I'm not really I'm more of a soccer and baseball guy personally so I'm just not that well versed in NBA stuff if you're not to me I found it to be pretty distant at times and a little confusing like alright what

[00:02:02] is this person symbolizing what are they talking about in terms of the NBA world all that stuff so I think while there's nothing wrong inherently of having a more distant cryptic script and perhaps it being more focused on a certain

[00:02:18] audience if we're comparing it to other films in the same sort of vein like for example Moneyball that's something in my opinion that anyone could watch and understand fairly well to follow along and not really get lost maybe I'm wrong

[00:02:32] there but I think that's a good example and so I don't think this movie has that strength which isn't you know again not a big problem but on both watches I found that to be a little frustrating so that's the main thing that brings it

[00:02:45] down at times I think performance wise I love Andre Holland he's a great character actor across the board I love him in everything Zazie Beetz has grown on me a lot she still hasn't been in that much but I

[00:02:57] like her Deadpool 2 Joker and some other things so really like her and even though I don't love how the script is done it's still a pretty interesting look and perspective behind the scenes peek at the world in NBA was something

[00:03:13] I know nothing about so that on its own is kind of interesting even if I didn't follow everything it's still like hey I'm learning something new about something I didn't know about you know so because I remember when the NBA

[00:03:25] lockout happened or this particular one I didn't think anything of it's like well I'm not basketball fan I'm not gonna pay much attention to it so I can appreciate getting to learn something about it regardless of what is true and

[00:03:36] what's changed and all that so I would recommend it it is I guess you could call it a bit of a tough watch you know you really have to invest to get something out of it and maybe if you are big basketball fan you would enjoy it

[00:03:50] even more than I did and I think it could go up even more over time you know I think it's one of those so it's a grower for sure on some other things I do like the occasional commentary or observations on people becoming instant

[00:04:08] celebrities because of sports or movies or whatever and how certain personalities can clash especially on a team it's not you're just an actor it's I'm having to work with this person and I'm pissed at them I'm gonna trash him

[00:04:23] on Twitter oh no don't do that because then that could ruin your whole career especially if you're at the beginning of it so all that stuff is pretty interesting and definitely speaks to modern-day culture and cancel culture

[00:04:34] even so yeah I could say it's underrated you know I feel like I'd never hear anyone mention it in everyday conversation about movies so I would give it a look you know give it a chance because you never know you might be

[00:04:48] actually really interested in what's happening maybe not so that one is a heavy three and a half out of five