Review: Air

Image courtesy of Amazon.

It wouldn't be factually incorrect to say that Ben Affleck's "Air" is a movie about the making of a shoe, but that would be selling this very well made, highly engaging, and often surprisingly funny true story woefully short. 

To date, Affleck's work behind the camera has primarily involved crime pictures and one Oscar-winning true story about some serious subject matter - so "Air" is arguably his breeziest work as a director, but also possibly his best. And yes, it is primarily concerned with how a group of employees at Nike - a company that, in the mid-1980s, sold a decent amount of running shoes, but was falling way behind its competitors - namely, Converse and Adidas - in the game to nab high-profile basketball players to wear its shoes - came up with a concept to lure basketball star Michael Jordan.

As the film opens, Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon in a great performance) - considered somewhat of a guru at the company - shrugs resignedly as another basketball season passes and his fellow execs aim low in finding three players to endorse their shoes. While watching TV one evening and seeing a commercial in which a tennis racket is marketed as capturing the essence of the star - Arthur Ashe - who wields it, Sonny comes up with an idea.

His fellow Nike execs aren't exactly sold on Sonny's concept of using the year's entire budget on just one basketball player, and it is generally frowned upon when Sonny travels to North Carolina to visit Deloris Jordan (a terrific Viola Davis), the shrewd mother of rising star Michael, to tries to convince her that her son would be best suited in Nike shoes (he's more prone to Adidas). This leads to some hilariously profane calls involving Jordan's agent (Chris Messina).

But Sonny gets Deloris to agree to at least bring her son to Oregon - where Nike is headquartered - for a meeting. At this point, the film becomes what one might call a process movie as a group of characters - Sonny, Nike marketing director Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), player-turned-exec Howard White (Chris Tucker), shoe designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), and Nike co-founder Phil Knight (Affleck), who insists that his Porsche is "grape," not purple and is quick with the Zen aphorisms - prepare for a specific job. In this case, it's coming up with the shoe - the Air Jordan - and pitch to land the basketball star during his visit.

This film boasts one of the best ensemble casts I've seen in a while. Damon is compelling, sympathetic, and poignant as Sonny, a middle aged guy who knows he's running out of chances, while Davis brings an understated calm as Deloris, a woman whom everyone in the scenario recognizes as the one in charge. Affleck displays a comic timing of which I was currently unaware, Messina adds some foul-mouthed hilarity, Tucker's fast-talking repartee provides for more than just comedic effect, Bateman deftly mixes dry delivery with world weariness, and Marlon Wayans gets a solid cameo as George Raveling.

Do the filmmakers go a little overboard in trying to capture the time period? Yes, perhaps, the opening credit sequence - which blends Jane Fonda workouts, Ronald Reagan, Cabbage Patch Kids, and clips from "Ghostbusters" and other popular movies of the era - combined with the nonstop needle drops lays it on a little thick. But it's not to the film's detriment. "Air" often takes a lighthearted approach to the material and is frequently good for a laugh.

However, the picture occasionally diverges into more serious territory - for example, the divorced Strasser talking about how his 7-year-old daughter has become used to him not being a presence or, during another sequence, how he is bothered by the fact that the manner in which Nike's products are produced might be exploitative. 

The film's piece de resistance, however, is a phone call late in the picture during which Deloris and Sonny negotiate a deal and, in the process, the film veers from being a comedy about capitalism into a drama about equity. It's a great moment of acting between Damon and Davis in a film that - especially considering the subject matter - is one of the bright spots of 2023 moviegoing so far.