In recent years, Ben Affleck has been on a hot streak and can do very little wrong (okay, we’ll forgive him for Deep Water). Dating back to The Way Back, a film featuring his best dramatic performance to date, Affleck has had a real career revival that got rid of the bad taste left from the whole DCU situation with his roles in the likes of The Tender Bar and The Last Duel. But after The Way Back, Affleck once again returns to the basketball movie genre with Air, a film which he both directed and stars in, which had all of the makings of an early-year Oscar-bait disappointment (overwhelmingly positive reactions/hype and Oscar buzz) but ended up being the best film of 2023 thus far.
Air Review
Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) is a talent scout for Nike, which almost makes him 1984’s equivalent to a Madden Ratings Adjustor. Sonny spends much of his days either tucked away in a closet watching film of various prospects or traveling to various high school basketball tournaments, giving away Nike shoes, and trying to recruit kids to the brand. Bear in mind, Air takes place during the time Nike was not the coolest kid in town. 1984 was the year of Adidas and Converse, while Nike could barely afford to keep its basketball division afloat.
That changes when Sonny becomes fixated on one college prodigy: Michael Jordan, who, at that point, could be seen sporting any brand without a checkmark for a logo. But as many say in Air, “it’s only a shoe until a foot steps into it,” and Sonny knows he has to take the biggest swing of his life to land Jordan. And while many shoot him down, from Jordan's agent to nearly all of his cohorts, Sonny remains persistent, and with the help of two of his closest co-workers, Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) and Howard White (Chris Tucker), he attempts to court (pun intended) the rookie to their brand with the biggest deal in athletic wear history — all as the presence of Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) looms over.
Make no mistake — Air is largely Damon’s movie, but the film has a stellar starting five consisting of Damon, Affleck, Bateman, Tucker, and Viola Davis (I’ll throw Chris Messina in as the sixth man). Damon is so likable as Sonny, a man that even Jimmy Kimmel would struggle to hate (which is saying something for a character played by Damon). He’s just so earnest, and you root for the guy who hardly knows his own place in the company. He also has great chemistry with anyone he shares scenes with — take his phone calls with Messina, who plays Michael’s agent David Falk, for instance — and brings out the best in everyone.
Affleck does a wonderful job both behind the camera, but he’s also superb in his performance as Phil Knight. The typically shoeless Affleck balances the hard-hat CEO and philosophical aphorisms with his usual grin. Everything about Air exudes the fact that just as Nike was for the real Phil Knight, this film is a passion project between friends such as Affleck and Damon.
The rest of the ensemble like Bateman and Tucker are great in their moments. It’s just unfortunate that these two, especially the latter, are largely sidelined once Sonny's journey takes him out of the office and to the marshes of North Carolina. But that’s the hand that some are dealt in a movie that’s under two hours long and as fast-paced as Air is.
Viola Davis is the standout as Deloris Jordan, Michael Jordan's mother. Not only does she want the best/what’s fair for her child, but she also wants to be a trailblazer for change that would allow players to get a bigger piece of the pie. Damon’s ability to play off of Davis stands out even more than the others in their multiple scenes together, as he has to not appear just as a salesman, but as someone who believes in Michael. Davis is one of the best workers in Hollywood — she deserved more recognition for her performance in The Woman King — and she leaves a lasting impression in a role that's smaller than most of the stars of Air.
The two other members of the ensemble that deserve a shoutout are Matthew Maher and Al Madrigal. Moore plays Peter Moore, a designer for Nike’s products, and once again finds himself playing an artist after his performance as Wallace Shearer — a comic book artist — in A24’s biggest miss from last year, Funny Pages. This time around, he’s surrounded by a much better film that allows him to actually be funny. You may recognize Madrigal from The Way Back where he played the straight-arrow coach that assisted Affleck’s character in the film. While he doesn’t have a huge role — I’d be surprised to learn he’s in more than three scenes — it’s a nice on-screen reunion that was unexpected.
Air opens with a montage filled with 1984’s greatest hits (and one Unforgettable Fire), and it’s a great example of how to do the '80s in 2023. The slight graininess, perfect costumes, and a great score (which is a compilation of other scores from the era) bring it all home. Air has an all-star below-the-line crew that has to begin with Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson (who reunites with Affleck after Live By Night).
While few would expect a basketball drama that features very little basketball to have exciting cinematography, Richardson’s dynamic framing of conversations adds a bit more juice to each scene. It’s cool to see the results of someone who very clearly worked with Martin Scorsese (there are a few long takes in Air) and Quentin Tarantino (the movement in conversation sequences). The cinematography can occasionally become too assertive — there’s a sequence in a bar with Sonny and George Raveling (Marlon Wayans) with too much usage of the rack focus technique — but it’s generally an integral part of making Air have personality and not just be another sports movie.
Editing is a crucial part of filmmaking, and maybe recently watching something like Murder Mystery — and its sequel — makes you come to further appreciate how much it can help make a film feel like a breeze (or in the case of Murder Mystery, make it feel longer than its runtime suggests).
The editing of Air — done by William Goldenberg, who previously worked with Affleck on both Argo and Live By Night — is also critical to the success of the film. The race against time and sense of urgency that Sonny feels throughout is largely created by Goldenberg's pacing. Any type of script like Alex Convery's needs some sort of rhythm, and the way Goldenberg cuts in dialogue-heavy scenes helps find that rhythm and make these scenes engaging rather than being mundane or, even worse, cheesy. Also, his usage of montages doesn’t feel as clichéd as many of the ones in films in the '80s, or attempting to replicate them, can, which is an added plus.
This is Convery's inaugural screenwriting effort, and what a debut this is. Convery must have had the same level of talent that Sonny Vaccaro saw in Michael Jordan for Affleck and Damon to want to adapt his material. Aside from one recurring bit — or structure of a recurring joke — that’s found three or four times early on that sounds like it’s trying a tad too hard to be like Adam McKay’s films or Aaron Sorkin, Convery’s script does the job. He should be in high demand in the fallout of Air’s release.
Should you see Air?
Air is the best film of the year so far. The infectious charisma it exudes and its underdog story do the job, while the cast, particularly the starting five, really score big. Ben Affleck is a good director who has always made directing look as easy as a layup. Air, however, is a free-throw line slam dunk that should make Michael Jordan proud.
Grade: A
Air will be released in theaters on April 5.
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