The name Michael Jordan has been synonymous with sneakers as long as it's been the same for basketball. His transcendence from basketball player to global icon parallels his signature shoe line, the Air Jordan, exploding from sports apparel to a cultural staple.
The continued growth of basketball and sneakers have kept conversations about both phenomena alive for almost 40 years. Yet, the basketball side has consistently received a more detailed chronicling of its tale. Air, the latest project from longtime Hollywood duo Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, aims to change that.
Air follows the story of then-Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro (Damon) and his pursuit to sign Jordan to save the company’s basketball division and, ultimately, itself. The story’s ending is well-known and on some of our feet, which begs the question - what does Air do for it? A lot and quite well.
That starts with Air’s writing. Writer Alex Convery’s approach to Air melds education and entertainment in a way that will leave you equally more knowledgeable and amused.
His script gives everything needed to follow the tale. It gives you some easily digestible fundamentals of the sneaker business. It takes you into the meetings where the decision-making process for recruiting and signing potential endorsees happens. For those unfamiliar with the sneaker business, this is the moment you learn why those rumored “deals” involving Lavar Ball and his sons were always just rumors.
The dialogue is where Convery’s script makes its money. The conversations are varied and sharp and hit every mark necessary, but do so without exploiting the audience’s rooting for Vaccaro. Their authenticity allows the film to subvert typical sports dramas featuring an adversary and be a business story. Convery achieves this by putting the right amount of humor in even the most poignant moments of Air as a reminder everyone is trying to do the best business for themselves. The Vaccaro-David Faulk back and forths epitomize that point.
From the director’s chair, Affleck again shows that he knows how to tell a story. He masterfully moves Air along the lines of comedy and drama without the insertion of either feeling abrupt. He also made a fantastic creative choice in limiting the presence of Jordan solely (pun intended) to the shoes and highlight reels to keep the focus on the process of courting him.
His only misstep is the set design and things put in place to remind us that this is the early 80s. Much of the story occurs between the Nike offices and the Jordans’ home, but it would have been nice to see more of what people outside those elements wore. This addition would have given a better sense of how much the Air Jordan changed things.
The best part of Air is its cast. There isn’t a single standout performance among it, but that’s not due to a bunch of big names going through the motions – it’s because they are all that good. As Vaccaro, Damon gets the most screen time, and his versatility is fully displayed. He’s part Good Will Hunting with the underdog grit, part Ocean’s movies/The Informant! with the ability to take and deliver a joke.
However, Damon’s performance would be nothing without the powerful ensemble that supports him, most notably Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan. We’ve seen her play the wise, steadying maternal figure before, but she does it so well that it’s always worth seeing again and again. Her scenes with Damon are what give the film its heart.
Chris Tucker as Howard White and Chris Messina as the aforementioned Faulk are also gold. In Tucker’s case, he proves he hasn’t lost a step and that Hollywood misses him. In a more limited role as George Raveling, Marlon Wayans was also impressive, especially in his telling of Raveling’s civil rights story.
It may be a dramatization of a pivotal point in Jordan’s life, but Air never feels like a full-on drama or a Jordan movie, and that’s where it wins. Keeping things from getting too heavy made Air easy to understand and akin to the reality that, most of the time, it’s really just business.
While I could easily see Convery’s script being in the Best Original Screenplay conversation, Air is not the Oscar contender that Affleck and Damon's projects typically find themselves among. Nonetheless, the writing and performances that tell this story are too good to say no to Air.
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