High Flying Bird

if this movie were a basketball team it'd be the rockets, but i'm a rockets fan. nobody is making movies more sterile, transactional and defiantly digital, mirroring the structures and aesthetics of the system he's critiquing with a cold precision that makes even the likes of mann and to seem antiquated. dude is so fucking smart--some might say to a fault--but the twist confirms that he's still making romantic heist movies, only now driven exclusively by political fury and sorrow.

The story of a man aware of the rules of his world and his place in it, manipulating the zeitgeist with the essence of his industry so that he can transcend his own smallness and, like the exchange between Holland and Duke suggests, demonstrate the “humanity” within the system by revealing its mortality. Like Social Network and Michael Clayton-lite set in the world of professional basketball. Brilliant. Polished visuals and sparky script. Best Soderbergh work in years.

While the specialized subject matter ultimately lacks a compelling hook if you're not already invested, Soderbergh proves that, as a film-maker, he hasn't lost his style or particular sense of "cool", making these series of conversation pieces snappy, if not as crackling as you might like. Well performed, especially by MacLachlan, Holland and scene-stealer Duke, but still perhaps lacking that narrative pull that distinguishes Soderbergh's top tier.

prensip olarak soderbergh görünce övüyorum çünkü o da prensip olarak film çekiyor.

I'm not saying every basketball movie needs to have the looney tunes or a golden retriever to hold my interest, but god damn this could have used something. Look, there's no rule that says a dog can't participate in an independently organized 1 on 1 during the NBA lockout. You wouldn't rather see High Flying Bud? Okay, it was fine but for its matter-of-factness it lacked a hook, and for such a talented cast the back-and-forths never quite sparked enough.

It felt like this was always about to begin getting good but never actually turned the corner

The great cast, snappy script and clever direction make this film a fun ride, even if I had at times trouble to keep up with the sports talk and the characters' goals and motivations. The final moments of the film played out like a reveal but left me mostly bewildered.

A Soderbergh heist movie in disguise, ripping off the big guys with an endless amount of foresight and ingenuity, everything falling in place like it was supposed to all along. At the same time, the commentary on how racial exploitation and athlete exploitation intersect provides a smart undercurrent (maybe not Moonlight smart, but certainly thought-provoking).

Story is mostly non-existent, but still a well-made and enjoyable film for an afternoon.

Viewed February 7, 2019.

HAHA he outsmarted em. It's fine without being memorable or re watchable. This film is anything but a 3 pointer.

Entertaining enough little drama on the theme that foresight and creativity are required when attempting to make headway in a game of power. The feeling that the protagonist has been concocted in order to teach the audience a lesson is a little too obvious, but all the elements cohere more or less successfully.

I love my man Donovan Mitchell. He's gonna bring the chip to the Jazz. Soderbergh shooting this on an iPhone is nutty.

Soderbergh again with the iPhone! Thankfully it's far less of a problem than the constant static shots in Unsane with a lot more camera movement on display in HFB, but there is still a low budget feel to the visuals here as even documentaries look better than this these days. Aside from that I thought Andre Holland didn't manage to carry the film with his performance in a way his role required but Beetz and Gregg were far more suited to their roles.

Although it was at sometimes hard to understand what was happening, cause I'm far from an expert about the NBA-system, this was an entertaining movie about a fast-talking slick guy manipulating people and the system to get what he wants. I didn't realize this was shot entirely on an iPhone till I read about it afterwards.

It takes an arrogant Soderbergh to make such a bad basketball film about an agent trying to CHANGE THE GAME from the inside during the NBA lockout. Unbearably boring.

I guess there's nothing that Soderbergh can't make compelling. A movie about a subject I have no interest in but it's just so well made.

It's ok, nothing too special about this one. The fact that it is shot with an iPhone is barely noticable and Soderbergh uses the mobility really well. But the story is just not that strong. I don't like amazingly intelligent lead charactrs saving the day.

andre holland talks so coool holy shit

An agent forces the end of a nba lockout by creating a threat to the league. Most of the time the movie doesn't push too hard its tone, it's dynamic, well paced, not too long - not intending/trying to make an average plot look great makes it more enjoyable.

(MONEYBIRD)

Netflix'in Soderbergh gibi yönetmenler için bir deney alanı olması umut verici. Aynı şekilde Soderbergh'in de kıymetli zamanını Logan Lucky gibi şeyler yerine bu tarz filmlere ayırması mutlu etti.

hate the iphone style, but the film is interesting and ultimately satisfying

It was a sleek and well acted film that took us behind the scenes of a professional sports lockout. It was quick paced and set up to show layers as they are revealed; Which allowed for us to see the true nature of how far one person's love of the game is willing to push them. It never really wavers and steadily just pushed the characters beyond their original comfort zone at the start of the film. That is the objective of any form of story. Well done Soderbergh. You nailed it.

It's got the Soderbergh energy, mixed with some incisive commentary on what it means to be a (black) human being in the midst of an inhumane system. The visual elements of the film seemed less than they could have been, much more emphasis on the words and the plotting than the showing. But Soderbergh has never been one to shy away from scripts with lots of words, either.

Awful dialogue, feels like a made for TV film

Sketchy, but decent warm-up before the "Full Circle" series.