Air – Review
112 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Alex Convery
Directed by Ben Affleck
**NOTE: this post will be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
From award-winning director Ben Affleck, Air reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. This moving story follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent, and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.
First things first: Air is NOT a sports movie; it’s not even a Michael Jordan movie.
Cool?
Okay. So most of you might not remember the days when Nike was NOT the dominant shoe company on the planet except for running sports. Most of you might not be able to conceive of a time when the NBA wasn’t popular, when games were on tape delay (yes, TAPE) because no one was watching.
Now, imagine an opportunity comes along when you realize the second fact was ending and you had the opportunity to exploit that to fix the first fact.
That’s where Nike was in 1984.
Air gives us Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro, a basketball scout working for Nike to try to identify players worth investing in to endorse their basketball shoes, in the face of competition from market leaders Adidas and Converse.
Sonny realizes Michael Jordan is THE PLAYER on whom Nike should put all their chips, going after no other players at all (instead of splitting their already meager budget between 3-4 “lesser” possibilities) in an attempt to redefine their place in the market.
It is, needless to say, a difficult task to convince Nike founder and CEO (and neo-hippie) Phil Knight to take such a gamble, especially when it is clear that Jordan has zero interest in Nike at all.
So, without sports, without watching Michael Jordan footage over and over again, what’s the appeal of Air?
Well, Viola Davis as Michael Jordan’s mom, for one (Jordan’s one stipulation, according to Affleck), and Damon as a put-upon, unappreciated expert at what he does, trying desperately to convince the world he can see the future: the future of the sport and the future of marketing.
That’s the story being told here: the story of people who see things differently and who approach them differently, as well.
And I love movies like that. Similar to the Kevin Costner not-sports film Draft Day, I love Air for the look at the people behind the stars, the ones trying to move things in a direction different than everyone else, and how that subjects them to hostility and sometimes abuse.
I recommend Air if you’re a fan of the cast (which is great), and know that Affleck has chosen another quality project to get behind (as well as in front) of the camera for, playing the once-daring-but-now-conservative Knight.
Check it out.
Air is exclusively in theaters starting April 5 and stars Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, Marlon Wayans, and Ben Affleck.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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