This comes through his hotshot client Erick Scott ( American Vandal’s Melvin Gregg), who Burke works with to create new opportunities and revenue streams for basketball outside of the organization of the league.Īn exciting, stylish movie with excellent performances and a strong script by Moonlight co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney, High Flying Bird is a modern sports movie masterpiece. The movie follows ambitious sports agent Ray Burke (the excellent André Holland), who attempts to put control back in the hands of the players during a lockout. That means there’s no better time to watch High Flying Bird, Steven Soderbergh’s reinvention of the sports drama shot on an iPhone 8. We’re also in the midst of a strike by television and movie writers who seek to improve their security within a lucrative industry. LeBron James is still improbably doing his thing 20 years into his NBA career, while blossoming superstars Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid seem set on a collision course in the NBA finals. Over in the real world, we’re in the midst of a very exciting NBA playoffs. Toussaint Egan High Flying BirdĬast: André Holland, Zazie Beetz, Melvin Gregg Heat was literally the first movie I saw in theaters after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions lifted, and honestly I couldn’t have asked for a better experience to remind myself why I fell in love with going to the theater in the first place. The sound of every gunshot pounds like a war drum, every frame is impeccably composed, and the iconic scene of Hanna and McCauley staring at each other across a diner table is only eclipsed by their inevitable and fatal confrontation in the film’s climax. The film is well and truly epic, a pitch-perfect crime drama complete with an ensemble cast featuring the likes of Val Kilmer ( Top Gun), Tom Sizemore ( Saving Private Ryan), and Amy Brenneman ( The Leftovers) delivering some of the best performances of their respective careers a pulse-pounding score composed by Elliot Goldenthal ( Demolition Man) and terrific action cinematography courtesy of Dante Spinotti ( Manhunter). You’ve (hopefully) already watched Den of Thieves, described by many, including our curation editor Pete Volk, as “ dirtbag Heat.” But have you ever actually watched Heat, Michael Mann’s classic 1995 crime thriller starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro? If you somehow haven’t, o-ho-ho-boy, are you in for a treat.ĭescribed by Mann himself as “a highly structured, realistic, symphonic drama,” Heat centers on Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), a career criminal and bank robber whose crew becomes the target of LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), whose obsessive fixation on catching criminals strains his personal life. Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer

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