AIR: Film Review
As much as I love Ben Affleck (both as an actor and director), Matt Damon and Jason Bateman, I wasn’t that excited about AIR because the story didn’t sound like it required a feature-length movie. But I was wrong – Affleck somehow manages to make a story about a shoe line super watchable and interesting.
The film is set in the 1980s, when basketball legend Michael Jordan is only just a rookie. However, he shows great potential and all the big shoe companies – Converse, Adidas and Nike – want to sign him to a sponsorship deal. AIR is told through the eyes of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro (played by Damon), who stakes his entire reputation and career by advising his direct boss Rob Strasser (Bateman) and Nike co-founder Phil Knight (Affleck) to risk Nike’s entire basketball marketing budget on Jordan instead of three mediocre players.
Nike has never signed or even courted such a big basketball talent for a business deal before so they are very much the underdog. Vaccaro has to come up with ways to persuade Jordan to go with Nike instead of its rivals and get around his no-nonsense sports agent David Falk (Chris Messina).
The subject matter seems really dry but thankfully the film itself is not at all. It’s compelling and engaging and much funnier than I expected. Alex Convery‘s script is sharp, witty and littered with one-liners and banter to keep the story feeling light and not too stuffy. I laughed out loud a lot, particularly during a tense, expletive-filled phone call between Vaccaro and Falk, who basically verbally abuses him.
It also helps that the cast seems to be having a great time making it. Damon’s Vaccaro is so passionate about Jordan’s career and is determined to secure him whatever the cost. He has taken a lot of knocks but is confident this one will pan out. We are rooting for Vaccaro to succeed more than Nike as a company because he clearly needs the win.
Affleck was hilarious as Knight, who wears wacky clothes and spouts Buddhist principles, Messina cracked me up as the fierce agent Falk, and Chris Tucker had a wonderful way with words as sports marketing executive Howard White.
But the emotional heart of the movie is with Viola Davis and Julius Tennon (her real-life husband) as Jordan’s parents Deloris and James. Vaccaro tries to win over Jordan via his parents so they have a huge part to play in the negotiations. It does feel weird that Jordan isn’t a character in a movie (we see the back of his head sometimes) but I’ve read Affleck’s explanation and I agree that it’s impossible to cast an actor as such an iconic person.
While the story in AIR is rather lightweight, the script and cast make it an entertaining, crowd-pleasing watch with a banging ’80s soundtrack.
In cinemas from Wednesday 5th April and on Prime Video from Friday 12th May