Air
Was hoping for a Big Baller Brand movie instead.
Cast of Characters:
Sonny Vaccaro – Matt Damon
Phil Knight – Ben Affleck
Rob Strasser – Jason Bateman
David Falk – Chris Messina
George Raveling – Marlon Wayans
Peter Moore – Matthew Maher
James Jordan – Julius Tennon
John Fisher – Jay Mohr
Howard White – Chris Tucker
Deloris Jordan – Viola Davis
Director – Ben Affleck
Writer – Alex Convery
Producer – David Ellison, Jesse Sisgold, Jon Weinbach, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Madison Ainley, Jeff Robinov, Peter Guber & Jason Michael Berman
Distributor – Amazon Studios & Warner Bros. Pictures
Running Time – 112 minutes
Rated R for language throughout.
The Rundown: It’s 1984, and the NBA has climbed its way back to the top of the sports scene thanks to the ratings bonanza that is the Magic Johnson v Larry Bird rivalry. The footwear of choice for the league’s stars is either Converse or Adidas, but that’s soon about to change once Nike, an Oregon-based shoe company known more for catering to runners, enters the picture.
Wanting to branch out into other sports, CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) tasks salesman Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) with expanding their basketball brand. With sales and growth down, Vaccaro has to come up with a slam dunk in so little time, and that’s when he pitches an unorthodox idea to Knight, marketing VP Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) and brand manager Howard White (Chris Tucker). Together, they will build an entire shoe line around a gifted yet untested rookie.
That rookie’s name is Michael Jordan.
Fingers crossed it works out for all of them.
Initial Thoughts: Air is a film that offers no surprises. Most everyone currently or has at one point before owned a pair of Nikes, and even if you’ve never worn a pair in your entire life, you still recognize its immense impact on sports, fashion and pop culture. For over three decades, the company’s brand has become so world dominant that, even without the aid of any words, just its iconic “swoosh” logo is immediately recongizable.
We already know going into Air how it’s going to all play out, just like we did before with David Fincher’s The Social Network, Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs and Ben Affleck’s Argo. Spoiler alert – Facebook’s still run by Mark Zuckerberg, Apple did quite well for itself and the American hostages managed to escape Iran. However, what made those three films so incredibly engrossing wasn’t the end result, but the steps taken to get to that result.
As Clark W. Griswold once said, “Getting there is half the fun.”
So, leave it to the Oscar-winning Affleck to, again, follow that same narrative path with the story of how Nike would go from a shoe company geared primarily toward runners to the biggest name in sports footwear thanks to one up-and-coming basketball star. While Affleck has still popped up in movies over the past few years, most notably as Batman in the DCEU films, Air does mark his first directorial effort in almost seven years since 2016’s crime thriller Live by Night. His last effort wasn’t up to par with his first three, Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo, but it was still an entertaining mob flick that overcame its flaws through a strong cast, impressive period style and Affleck’s assured directing touch. Now, with Air, it may not quite be Argo great, but it sure is Gone Baby Gone and The Town great, and is another superb reminder of why Affleck’s name deserves to be mentioned among the best directors of today.
The Good: As previously mentioned, Air’s biggest challenge was to draw intrigue and tension out of a story to which we already know the ending, and Affleck successfully keeps us riveted from begin to end as the deadline for Nike to make a winning shoe line pitch to Michael Jordan approaches.
This is, after all, the same man that had us on the edge of our seats during Argo, hoping and praying the American hostages somehow find a way to escape Iran alive.
Working from Alex Convery’s snappy script, which was listed in 2021’s Black List (the annual listing of most-liked screenplays yet to be made), Affleck has expertly crafted a film about process and the inner-workings of how deals get made that. No, it may not be about basketball itself, but through the aid of three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson (a longtime collaborator of both Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino) and Oscar-winning editor William Goldenberg (who won for his work on Affleck’s Argo), Air is able to move with the nail-biting urgency of a down to the wire, Game 7 NBA Finals match. Of course, basketball fans will certainly eat this up, particularly during a moment where Sonny Vaccaro beautifully breaks down the play that led to the freshman Jordan hitting the game-winning shot in the 1982 NCAA championship game. That said, even if basketball isn’t your thing, Convery’s script speaks to the viewers in a language everyone can understand, which goes a long way in making this much more palatable to the uninitiated.
Another shrewd move by Affleck and Convery is the decision to keep Jordan strictly in the background, with the rare moments we do see or hear him coming from a behind the back shot or an offscreen phone conversation (though some cross-cutting of his eventual legacy is revealed during a rousing, third-act monologue from Matt Damon). Given Jordan’s larger-than-life persona, featuring him front-and-center would’ve only served as a distraction, so by placing him off to the side, it keeps the focus firmly on Vaccaro’s story while also maintaining Jordan’s elusive aura.
What also makes a seemingly mundane story about the creation of a shoe so engaging is the cast, which is always the case, top to bottom, in Affleck’s films. Affleck, again, reteams with recurring collaborator and lifelong friend Matt Damon, and it’s another great reminder of why they make such a compelling onscreen team, be it Good Will Hunting (for which they both won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar), Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse comedies or, most recently, 2021’s underrated and underseen The Last Duel. Damon brings his winning everyman quality to Sonny Vaccaro, a man who seems to be the only one who sees the once-in-a-generation talent within the young North Carolina Tar Heel (besides his mother), and is relentlessly determined to pursue that talent, even if failing to secure a deal means losing his job and the jobs of others. Affleck brings an effective mixture of zen-like calm and CEO bigwig arrogance to Phil Knight. Together, the longtime duo’s on-point chemistry shines through each of their interactions, allowing Vaccaro’s relationship with Knight, one that is a precarious balance of mutual respect and occasional friction, to truly resonate.
Equally strong are the supporting turns, of which there is no shortage. Jason Bateman brings his trademark, perfectly honed style of dry delivery to Rob Strasser, Nike’s marketing VP who believes in Vaccaro’s ability to close a deal, even if he isn’t always on board with his methods to get there. Matthew Maher (who previously worked with Affleck on Gone Baby Gone) gives an off-kilter sense of likability to Peter Moore, the eccentric shoe design guru responsible for creating Nike’s iconic Air Jordan 1 silhouette. Chris Messina pops up in a handful of scenes as Jordan’s agent David Falk, scoring a scene-stealing, hilariously profane rant during an intense phone call opposite Damon. Chris Tucker brings much-needed warmth and levity to Howard White (one of the few provisions Jordan himself requested be in the film), the fast-talking brand manager, who in real life would go on to become close friends with the NBA legend.
And then there’s Oscar winner Viola Davis (the second provision requested by Jordan), who plays MJ’s mother Deloris and almost singlehandedly steals the entire movie out from everyone else in just a few pivotal scenes. Davis brings such a powerfully dynamic presence to every role she takes, and Air is no exception, bringing dignity, grace and a quiet fierceness to a mother who strongly believes in her son and is ready to fight for him. This is most notably on display during a phone call with Vaccaro, where she lays out the conditions for her son’s agreement, then calmly yet firmly explains why she simply won’t accept no for an answer. Just that scene alone is enough for Davis to leave an immense impression on the film, and it’s a wonderful testament to her skill that’s able to make her presence that much known in only a couple of scenes. As much as Air is certainly about what Vaccaro accomplished for Nike, it’s also every bit as much a tribute to what MJ’s mother accomplished for him as well.
The Bad: Air opens with a montage of various clips of movies, pop culture, social and political references of the period. Hey, remember Ghostbusters and the “Where’s the beef?” ad and the 1984 presidential election between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale? Yeah, that took place in the ’80s, in case you didn’t know. It’s as if Affleck is going out of his way to remind viewers of the fact that this film is, without any shred of doubt, set in the ’80s. Not only is it an overused, on-the-nose device, it’s also unnecessary, as Affleck perfectly nails the period details in a way that let’s it speak for itself without the need to hammer I Love the ’80s into the viewers’ heads.
Still, we’re talking about a montage that, at most, is roughly 2-3 minutes, so this is the most minor of minor quibbles in the grand scheme of an overall fantastic movie.
The Ugly: That forever question of “What if?” in the back of the Portland Trail Blazers’s mind knowing they passed on a future G.O.A.T. superstar who was getting his footwear from a sneaker company just a few miles away.
Remember those six first-half threes Jordan swished in Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals? Pepperidge Farm remembers… and so do the Blazers.
Consensus: Led by Ben Affleck’s impeccable direction, Alex Convery’s sharp script and a terrific A-list cast led by Matt Damon, Air is a snappy, compelling inside look at one of the most pivotal deals made in sports history. Much like the man Nike risked everything to go all-in on nearly forty years ago, this movie absolutely soars as one of the year’s best.
Silver Screen Fanatic’s Verdict: I give Air an A (★★★½).
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