Air
In 1984, the shoe company Nike is deciding who to spend its $250k budget on wearing and being their spokesperson for their sneakers from the NBA. Generally they pick three new players per year.
Basketball talent scout Sonny Vaccaro thinks it should just be newcomer Michael Jordan, but as Jordan is being scouted by both Adidas and Converse – Nike must make him a better offer, and his bosses think spending all their money on one player is a terrible idea.
Direction
Directed by Ben Affleck, this is yet another biographical/period film that he tends to favour with his filmography. Having done such great work in previous films like Argo, The Town this was sound work.
At times there are some clunky editing, such as when two characters are in conversation – one in the foreground, one in the background – the person not talking is blurred. With deep focus a thing, I wondered why he did not utilise this.
Another nit pick I had was the constant use of AI or computer imagery on the sweep shots of some buildings. In one scene we have this as the camera pans down to see an approaching car , and then cuts to real life and it was quite a jarring shot. For someone who is so talented behind the camera, I found this to be a disappointing.
Cast/Characters
Matt Damon plays Sonny, and he is good in the role, and he is starting to play age appropriate roles (that being said, Damon is almost a decade older than the real Sonny was at the same time). While is is sound, he has done significantly better roles in his past filmography.
Affleck himself plays Nike CEO Phil Knight, and I think this was a misstep to put himself in front of the camera. The idiosyncrasies of the real Knight are touched upon, and unnecessary to the narrative. I felt that Affleck struggled again with the drama part of the film.
Jason Bateman is solid as always in the secondary role of Marketing VP Rob Strasser. He delivers in dramatic roles, and is always on point.
Chris Tucker appears in his first film in nearly a decade, and it was a little odd to see him in a dramatic role – but he got to use his comedic chops in a scene with Mr and Mrs Jordan.
Viola Davis plays the important role of Mrs Deloris Jordan. I do feel like she does roles like these well, but I worry that she has become typecast as perpetually antagonistic.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
Set in 1984, I found the costumes and hair to be of sound quality, one nit pick I did have that was most of the ‘1984’ items felt a little manufactured, and didn’t seem to have any wear and tear. A few shots of items like toys, and number plates seemed too brand new. There was also a very heavy use of make up especially for some of the female cast, and even at time some of the men – and it felt a little too obvious.
I found that there was good use of throwing history into the dialogue between characters, and it was quite organic; and something I did not know about. The name itself Nike (named after the Greek goddess of victory), the trademark (the final words of a death row inmate) and the logo (the artist being paid $35)
There are quite a few good examples of well written dialogue and it is quite impressive. Once stand out for me was the monologue by Sonny to Jordan that got him over the line to come to them. I also thought it was very clever to not actually see Michael himself on screen, and only hear him speak once and that was over the phone.
Score/Soundtrack
There was a ‘era’ appropriate soundtrack, that I thought was lifted from other films either set in, the mid 1980s. Quite a few songs ‘Blister in the Sun’ and ‘Born in the USA’ which plays over the ending montage in which the history of Nike and Jordan’s relationship is shown.
I also loved the pope culture opening credits.
Overall
Despite my minor nit picks, I still think this was a very good film. Not the best from Affleck behind the camera, or Damon in front, but it was still good to watch and interesting in how Nike scored Jordan – and became one of the biggest shoe companies on the planet.
3.5/5
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