Air is a period corporate drama that is sports adjacent. The movie follows Nike's struggling basketball department in 1984 and the origin of signing Michael Jordan for what became the iconic Air Jordan shoe line.
The cast is absolutely chock full of talent. Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro wields his hang-dog movie star charm to great effect, Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan(to no one's surprise) is fantastic, Chris Tucker as Howard White is a joy to see(give him more work Hollywood!), the list goes on. But despite the talent and effort going in the overall effect is a little thin. We don't know or care too much about our lead Vaccaro. Behind every scene is the presence of the GOAT himself who is not seen, other than in archival game footage, which when it appears we realize is actually what we want to be watching.
With slick, understated but evocative period production and a never-ending list of needledrops the design is snappy, the pacing rhythmic. Its easy to get caught up in the momentum, its unquestionably entertaining and the allure of Jordan's legend, even at this remove, is undeniable. But. If we take just even a small step back we see that this is, ultimately, about mostly white dudes in 80's corporate America making money. Any pretentions otherwise are simply disingenuous. The two elements that make this particular story noteworthy- Jordan himself and Jordan's insistence that he receive a percentage of sales- are smaller elements than they should be.
A great advertisement for The Last Dance series streaming on Netflix. In and of itself, not much.
Currently in theaters and streaming on Amazon.
Stream It.
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