"Air" Review
Air is one of the best sports movies that has been released in the last ten years. It’s incredible how entertaining the movie is considering that the premise is about shoes. In 1984, Michael Jordan was a top-three pick in the NBA draft and Nike had a very small basketball division. The movie follows Nike as they attempt to increase the division by gaining sponsorships from draft picks. While this was happening, a Nike employee, Sonny Vaccaro, had the brilliant idea that changed everything for Nike; he decided to risk it all and spend all of Nike’s budget on basketball, going after Michael Jordan to sponsor their shoes. Nike knew they were the underdogs in this, and that Jordan was interested in signing with other big companies, but Nike made a very convincing pitch and presented to Jordan something that had never been done in the basketball shoe industry before. Nike presented Jordan with black and red hightops with a white midsole. The NBA had rules and regulations about how the shoes worn by players had to be 51% white, but Nike made a shoe that was cutting edge and violated those rules. They offered to pay the $5,000 fine for Jordan, so he could be unique. Nike took a risk that no other shoe brand had done, making Jordan the face of all Nike basketball shoes. They offered him $250,000, a car, and a percentage of every shoe with his name on it, which today helps him bring in over $200 million per year in passive income.
The movie was directed by Ben Affleck, and he did everything in the movie to perfection. He made a few interesting choices as a director. The biggest is that he decided to have Jordan’s role more obscure in the movie, which was done on purpose. Jordan (Damian Young) is always shown in the movie from behind or from a side view, and it never truly reveals his face, which I will admit was distracting at first to me, but then I understood the reasoning behind the decision. Affleck said he decided to keep Jordan’s face concealed because he is such a big personality and is the most well-known athlete in the world, and nobody could truly fill those shoes. From an audience perspective, it was odd at first, but after watching it I appreciated the fact that he played a minimal role. Affleck was truly right, and not having Jordan play a dominant role made me focus on the shoe and the overall story of Nike versus how well the actor lived up to and played the role of the great Michael Jordan.
The film was written by Alex Convery, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon, and Air finds that sweet spot between a light comedy and a drama, which is very tough to get right. It’s particularly funny, but the jokes tend to be less obvious and it’s all about how the character delivers the humor. Matt Damon is crucial to the humor in the film, which adds an extra layer of fun to the movie. The movie is packed with top-tier actors and actresses including the writers Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon along with others such as Chris Tucker, Jason Bateman, and many others. This made the movie the best it could be.
This movie was truly one of my favorite sports movies ever and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in sports, is a sneakerhead, or is looking for a light comedy/drama. Air will be released to Amazon Prime and other streaming platforms within the month.
By Avner Belsky