High Flying Bird

High Flying Bird is a 2019 American sports drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh, from a story suggested by André Holland, with the screenplay by Tarell Alvin McCraney. The film stars Holland, Zazie Beetz, Melvin Gregg, Sonja Sohn, Zachary Quinto, Glenn Fleshler, Jeryl Prescott, Justin Hurtt-Dunkley, Caleb McLaughlin, Bobbi Bordley,  Kyle MacLachlan and Bill Duke.

The film had its world premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival on January 27, 2019 and was released on February 8, 2019, by Netflix.

Premise
Sports agent Ray Burke works to relinquish a basketball lockdown with the help of rookie basketball player Erick Scott that includes pitching a business opportunity which causes an earthquake in the world of sports.

Cast
Additionally, Skip Bayless, Shannon Sharpe, Joy Taylor, Evan Rosenblum, Van Lathan, Kristina Pink, and Harry Edwards appear as themselves. Basketball players Reggie Jackson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Donovan Mitchell make appearances as themselves in individual interview scenes.

Production
In October 2017, it was announced André Holland had been cast in the film, with Steven Soderbergh directing from a screenplay written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, with Extenstion 765 producing. In March 2018, Zazie Beetz and Kyle MacLachlan joined the cast of the film. In April 2018, Melvin Gregg joined the cast of the film.

Filming
Principal photography began in February 2018, in New York City and the film wrapped on March 15, 2018. The film was shot using an iPhone 8 smartphone, equipped with an anamorphic lens produced by Moondog Labs.

Release
In September 2018, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film. Speaking about how Netflix got involved with the film, director Steven Soderbergh explained: ""I'd been in conversations with Netflix during Unsane [also shot on an iPhone], and when I ended up going in a different way, I said, 'Look, I have this other thing, I will make sure you get eyes on it early.' When it was basically finished, I brought it to them and they said, 'Great, we'd like to buy it.' It felt like, the kind of film it is, the best way to maximize eyeballs. It's got a better shot at finding all the people who will like it. Otherwise, it's a slow-rolling platform release, which are expensive and you're bound by where the big arthouse theaters are. You can't just go anywhere. I just felt I'd rather have it drop and have everybody be able to see it.""

It had its world premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival on January 27, 2019. It was released on February 8, 2019.

Reception
High Flying Bird received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 93% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 96 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "High Flying Bird takes a thoughtful and engrossing look at professional sports that sees Steven Soderbergh continuing to test the limits of new filmmaking technology." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 78 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".