Affleck and Damon clear the ‘Air’ on Jordan sneaker deal

[Rating: Solid Rock Fist Up]

The Jordan shoe deal in 1984 will stand as one of the single greatest marketing slash business decisions ever made by both the NIKE shoe company, which at the time was about to bail on its basketball operations, and a young rookie baller out of the University of North Carolina who would go on to be arguably the greatest of all time: one Michael Jeffrey “Air” Jordan.

AIR, directed by Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon and Viola Davis takes this monumental business arrangement and spins it up into a fun, win against all odds, feel good movie that provides some of the best performances and probably the best movies (so far) in what is the Jordan year.

Cuz it’s 2023…’23. Get it?

Damon plays Sonny Vacarro, a basketball lifer who acts as a consultant for the Nike company. With the company struggling to keep up with Converse and Adidas, Nike’s enigmatic and ironically shoeless CEO, Phil Knight (Affleck, doubling down on director duties), is happy being number one in the running shoe game, but even he knows Nike needs a real bonafide star or they are sure to fade into obscurity. Vacarro believes that star is Michael Jordan, a known Adidas fanboy, and decides the only way to get to MJ is set a ball screen on Jordan’s agent, David Falk (Chris Messina), and work the ball through mom (Davis) an dad (Julius Tennon) and convince them their son needs a show that will showcase him as a the game changing, generational talent he is rather than simply throwing him in a showcase with other big name players the same way I used to collect baseball cards.

The film primarily focuses on Damon and Davis as the center stage match up. As the gambler Vacarro, Damon is essentially the point guard, flanked by his wing man and Nike marketing guru Rob Stasser (Jason Bateman), as well as Nike exec. Howard White (Chris Tucker) and designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher) as they try and defy the odds to lure Jordan, without the money and clout of the competition. Damon is the real star. He’s relatable, he’s grounded, and he’s funny. Some of the movies best moments are the passive aggressive love-hate-rage fueled phone conversations between Damon and Messina. But Viola Davis is Viola Davis. This woman could steal your soul and you’d thank her for it.

Love him or hate him — and I know, a lot of you love to hate on Ben Affleck — but the man can direct. From The Town to Argo, he’s got a solid track record. AIR plays like a generational cousin to Jerry Maguire in tone and heart. Clocking in at less than 2 hours, the film never outstays it’s welcome, it never dwells on a scene or a story beat longer than it needs to and it moves forward without any excess fat. Affleck focuses the story on Damon’s Vacarro, as well as the overriding personal and professional sacrifice this company laid on the line to recruit a guy to just wear a freaking basketball shoe. It bustles through a tumultuous and frantic showdown between two sneaker giants and a wanna be shoe company that figured out the way to market Air Jordan was by convincing us that we all wanna be like Mike.

Being based on a true story is always a double edged sword, because you know going in you’re only getting one side of the story. Sure it’s predictable. We all know Jordan took the Nike deal and now makes like 400 gazillion dollars a year in Nike Air Jordan monies. It’s jam packed full of cliches and overstuffed with 80’s pop music cues at literally every scene break. There is a whole David V. Goliath, overcoming all odds, live free or die hard, Just Do It message etched into every scene but it never feels like too much and it never kisses its own ass more than it needs to.

But it’s fun. It’s funny. It’s well-written, superbly acted, and overall just a real feel good type of movie that might strangely hit a lot of 80’s kids in the feels. Especially for us old school ballers who still remember that magical night when we we sat down and laced up our first pair if Nike Air Jordan’s back in the day.

The aura of Michael Jordan, THE G.O.A.T., is maintained by one of Ben Affleck’s best creative decisions. He never shows MJ’s face, nor does he ever talk on camera and this is a good thing. We see him from the side, from behind, but the focus always remains between Damon and Davis for the most part. MJ is the prize. Affleck peppers in a lot of real game and news footage of Jordan, especially his game winning NCAA title game shot against Georgetown in 1982, but his Airness does not have much of a presence outside of his myth. This allows us as the audience to never have to take our eyes of Damon and Davis, both who turn in early-Oscar nominees short list worthy performances (whether they’ll be remembered in 10 months remains to be seen).

AIR might be the first great movie of 2023. It’s another home run for Ben Affleck the director, yet another fun performance from Matt Damon that let’s him have fun in his role, while being surrounded by a stellar cast that constantly elevates every scene. Viola Davis should be jailed for being a scene stealer (ah!!) and it’s nice to see Chris Tucker back. But it’s a solid flick that tells an amazing story.

Tagged as: 2023, AIR, Ben Affleck, Chris Messina, chris tucker, Jason Bateman, matt damon, Movie Review, NIKE, Viola Davis