During an NBA lockout, a sports agent, Ray Burke, presents his rookie client, Erick Scott, with an intriguing and controversial business opportunity.
The opening scene of High Flying Bird sets up a very unconventional sports movie. Both the NBA player and the agent are broke due to a lockout and they can't even pay a coffee bill. You'd think this world would be full of agents and players swimming in money, but no. The script by Moonlight scribe Tarell Alvin McCraney and the smooth, slick, iPhone filmmaking mastery of Steven Soderbergh make for a boardroom drama that's both engaging and educational. I loved the way the film approaches corporate greed, the struggle of basketball players in maintaining PR, and trying to find success by thinking out of the box. All in all, a solid film by a solid crew.