Air (2023) Amazon/Drama RT: 112 minutes Rated R (language throughout) Director: Ben Affleck Screenplay: Alex Convery Music: Andrea von Foerster (supervisor) Cinematography: Robert Richardson Release date: April 5, 2023 (US) Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, Matthew Maher, Julius Tennon, Tom Papa, Joel Gretsch, Gustaf Skarsgard, Barbara Sukowa, Jessica Green, Jay Mohr, Dan Bucatinsky, Damian Delano Young, Al Madrigal, Michael O’Neill.
Rating: ****
A movie about sneakers sounds like whacking material for shoe fetishists. That’s NOT what Air is. It’s not about just any sneaker; it’s about the most popular line of sneakers ever created, Air Jordan. Personally, I’ve never owned a pair, but that’s only because I can’t justify spending over 100 bucks for a pair of shoes. Besides, do you know how many young people get robbed of their Air Jordans at gunpoint? It’s a substantial amount. I’m not about to risk my life over footwear, but that’s me.
After a slight misstep with his period gangster piece Live by Night, director Ben Affleck makes a strong comeback with Air, a compelling drama about the origin of Air Jordans by Nike recruiting expert Sonny Vaccaro who saw something special in rookie Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan. Vaccaro is played by Affleck’s regular cohort Matt Damon and their chemistry is as strong as ever. It takes a lot of convincing to get his colleagues, marketing director Rob Strasser (Bateman, Game Night) and player-turned-Nike exec Howard White (Tucker, Silver Linings Playbook), on board. It’s even harder to convince company CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) to commit his basketball division’s entire $250K budget to recruit MJ. It turned out to be the best business decision in the history of business. Nike went from an also-ran sportswear company, number three behind Adidas and Converse, to a billion-dollar titan of industry.
Getting MJ to promote the sneakers specifically designed with him in mind will take more than promises of wealth and immortality. Before any of that can even begin to happen, Sonny has to clear a major hurdle, MJ’s business savvy mother Deloris (Davis, The Woman King). She’s a tough nut, this Mrs. Jordan. She’s the one who makes all the business decisions on behalf of her son. After being told not to call her by MJ’s agent David Falk (Messina, Birds of Prey), Sonny drives to the family home in North Carolina for a face-to-face with Deloris. It’s a gamble that pays off when she schedules a meeting at company HQ in Beaverton, OR.
I have to hand it to Amazon Studios for granting Air a theatrical release. It was originally intended to premiere on Amazon Prime, but positive reactions from test audiences motivated them to release it to theaters instead. It’s the right move (I hope) because it’s an excellent film. It succeeds on every level which is a rarity in today’s film market. Most of what passes for cinema these days is inferior, prefabricated drivel that leaves much to be desired. I realize I sound like a cranky old guy who’s completely out of touch with modern society, but what’s true is true. Film is a dying art and I blame it on the moviegoing public more than the artists. We’re living in a time when audiences flock en masse to every damn movie bearing the Marvel banner while ignoring adult-oriented dramas like Babylon (so underrated) and The Fablemans (so overlooked). I’d hate to see Air suffer the same fate. It deserves better.
Air has an 80s vibe to it which makes sense seeing as it’s set in 1984. Affleck never lets us forget it either with all the callouts to 1984 pop culture starting with an opening montage featuring clips of popular films (Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop), commercials (“Where’s the beef?”), fads (breakdancing), toys (Cabbage Patch Kid dolls) and sports highlights of the time. He also jam-packs his film with a plethora of hit songs by Dire Straits (“Money for Nothing”), Violent Femmes (“Blister in the Sun”), Night Ranger (“Sister Christian”), Cyndi Lauper (“Time After Time”) and many others. He even includes a few cuts from film scores by Tangerine Dream (e.g. Risky Business, Firestarter and Three O’Clock High). This is in lieu of an original score and it pays off beautifully. It works in perfect harmony with Robert Richardson’s (Natural Born Killers) cool, sleek cinematography. At times, I felt like I was watching a Michael Mann movie. It has that kind of feel to it.
The acting in Air is uniformly tremendous, so much that it’s virtually impossible to single out any one performance. Davis delivers as MJ’s no-BS mama who creates a new precedent by insisting her son receive a percentage of every sneaker sold, an extremely profitable gambit that made MJ a very, very rich man. Messina has some great profane moments as the territorial agent who hates not being in the loop. Matthew Maher (Our Flag Means Death) is memorable as the designer who creates the iconic footwear. Tucker brings his usual fast-talking hustler persona to the party to great effect. Bateman is perfectly cast as the blunt marketing guy. Damon does solid work as Sonny, an idea man who won’t be deterred from making what he knows with every fiber of his being is a smart business move. Affleck even kills it as the CEO defined by both his Zen-like attitude towards life and at-work arrogance. It’s not often an entire cast gets it this right.
I’m not even going to speculate on what we can expect from Air at the box office. Instead, I’m going to strongly recommend that you choose it over anything else that’s currently playing at multiplexes. Well, almost anything else, I still think John Wick: Chapter 4 is pure action awesomeness. But if you prefer something less violent and more intelligent, Air is the clear choice. It’s the rare sports-themed movie that focuses on the behind-the-legend dealings rather than the legend. In fact, we never get a full-on view of MJ. We mainly see him from behind. It’s a brilliant move on Affleck’s part as it augments the air of expectation surrounding his being, a sign of the great things yet to come from a future basketball star. Like its subject, Air is pure greatness.
