High Flying Bird: ultimately sort of a con game movie disguised as a sports drama, Steven Soderbergh’s newest presents a nice collection of characters and very snappy, smart dialogue. It sports some nice ideas, but the result is, nevertheless, a touch too emotionally distant. The cast is clearly responding to the interesting characters and rich dialogue, and turning on nice performances; André Holland mixes well the intelligence, care and a bit of despair as he plays the over-his-head game; Zazie Beetz likewise projects well the smartness and strength of hers. Sonja Sohn, Bill Duke and Melvin Gregg are also fine in their smaller but crucial roles. The film’s look, a bit of a metalinguistic gambit (as it was shot, by Soderbergh himself under his usual moniker Peter Andrews, in an iPhone), works in spite of the odd distortions, as it gives a lot of freedom for camera movements. The film (also edited by Soderbergh with his sobriquet Mary Ann Bernard) moves quickly.