Watching him lose hope as his faith in God wavers, elicits an audience response like Ejiofor can do better than most actors. His farmer father, played by Ejiofor, resorts to baleful rage birthed from his failure to care for and protect his family. When protagonist William’s ( Maxwell Simba) village is stricken with an historic drought, suffering follows. In his directorial debut, Chiwetel Ejiofor tells a story set and filmed in the impoverished African nation of Malawi. And knowing its finale softens the blow that this film hits you with again and again as it drifts along from one devastating moment to the next. Sometimes knowing the ending doesn’t spoil the rest of the experience, which is the case here. The title alone tells you where this one is going. Lock in, focus up, and play sharp, because High Flying Bird ain’t here to mess around. High Flying Bird has a ton going on, and if you watch the thing the way you might watch other Netflix programming (which is to say: half-checking your phone the entire time), you might walk away not knowing what the heck happened. The film is dense - every scene nearly disorienting the mind not just with its packed, oft-discursive always-entertaining dialogue, but with Soderbergh’s oft-180-rule-breaking coverage (Soderbergh puts his phone camera everywhere). André Holland dominates subtly as a fast-talking, always-working sports agent (think a chiller Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems) who tries to appease a new client ( Melvin Gregg) during a vicious NBA lockout. Steven Soderbergh! Inventive iPhone cinematography! Narrative action furthered solely by crackling dialogue! An incredible screenwriter, Tarell Alvin McCraney ( Moonlight)! “Behind the game” sports drama! I knew High Flying Birdwould work for me, but I am still surprised as to how well exactly it worked for me. It checks all the “Things That Would Appeal Specifically to Me” boxes regarding good movies. It’s a fascinating, deeply involving film and I couldn’t really stop thinking about it for days after I watched it. what is the purpose of working in China, and how do those two philosophies clash when a Chinese company is forced to defer to American regulations? We all spend so much of our lives working for a living, but American Factory shows how differently the idea of “labor” is tackled in different countries, sometimes to unsettling results. What is the purpose of working in America vs. Culture clashes ensue, but what’s most interesting about American Factory is how the film examines labor. A Chinese company called Fuyao then buys the plant and opens a glass manufacturing company, affording many of those laid-off workers the opportunity to work again-this time alongside workers from China. The film takes place in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, where a GM plant recently closed leaving a vast number of people without jobs. The Netflix documentary American Factory is worth every piece of praise it’s received thus far.
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