Air is the true story of how Nike, a billion-dollar shoe company with a terrible basketball division, attempted to sign the rookie sensation, Michael Jordan. This movie has been getting nothing but positive word-of-mouth, and I most definitely see why!
Air is directed by Ben Affleck and stars Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Chris Tucker, Jason Bateman, and Affleck himself. The strength of this film for me personally is its’ authenticity. You actually feel as if you’re following along with real people just trying to do their jobs. This story isn’t necessarily made to be cinematic, it’s a biopic. So instead of going over the top, they keep things authentic, and I can respect that.
I will admit, while Matt Damon is incredibly likeable as Sonny Vaccaro, Nike’s lead basketball player recruiter, in this film, I was a little bored for the first 45 minutes or so of this one. As a big basketball fan myself, and obviously knowing that Michael Jordan eventually signs with Nike and creates the Air Jordan shoe brand, the attempt at drama and uncertainty wasn’t handled to the best of its ability with this story.
For every actor in this film, this is most definitely the easiest job they’ve had in years. No one is having to “act” in a very difficult way here. Matt Damon is doing his job, making sure no Boston accent shows up in his performance, and besides that, it just feels like hanging out with Matt Damon in the 80s. Not to say that anyone does a bad job because they don’t! Every actor on screen, once again, feels authentic and real to the audience.
If you didn’t know, Air was made and then purchased by Amazon Studios to be a Prime Video streaming movie. I think this is a great movie for streaming. I wouldn’t necessarily pay to see it in theaters if I’m already subscribed to Prime. This works very well for an at home, sitting on the couch movie, that just happens to have a star-studded cast!
Overall, I think you should check out Air when it lands on Prime Video very soon! I think it almost helps to not be too familiar with the story, so that you can be surprised and excited by the troubles and decisions that are made along the way. I enjoyed hanging out with Matt Damon and would like to do it again sometime!
AIR is in Theaters on April 5th, 2023.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Logan Wischmeier (Contributing Editor) is a Texas native and a massive fan of all genres of film. You can find him talking about movies on YouTube or in line for the latest Star Wars/Comic Book film.Click Here to check out Logan's Articles.