Air
Directed by Ben Affleck
Written by Alex Convery
Starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Viola Davis, Chris Tucker
Rated R for language throughout
Runetime: 1 hour, 52 minutes
In theaters April 5

by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring

Spoiler alert: You already know how this story ends. Michael Jordan and Nike are one of the biggest mutual success stories in sports and business of the last half century. Not only did Jordan achieve unparalleled success in basketball, becoming an icon and avatar of the sport, but by partnering with Nike, built a business empire and changed the way athletes are marketed. Michael Jordan was inevitable, but what Air does is give an inside view of how improbable the Nike side of this deal actually was.

In 1984, Nike is a distant third in market share for basketball shoes. Converse, with their endorsements with Magic Johnson and Larry Byrd was first, and Adidas with their rising cultural profile, was second. Nike made their money off running shoes, functional but not cool. Basketball scout/marketing guru Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) works at Nike trying to predict which NBA rookies they should pursue for an endorsement deal to try to keep them at least in the game. Re-reviewing tape from the 1982 NCAA Division I men's basketball championship game, Vaccaro notices freshman Michael Jordan’s relaxed confidence immediately before shooting the game winning basket. He decides that he wants to take Nike’s (meager) $250,000 basketball endorsements and bet it all on Jordan. Inspired by a commercial featuring Arthur Ashe hawking tennis rackets named after him, he decides Nike’s best play after the cash (easily matched by their competitors) is to build a line of shoes around Jordan, a first for the industry and the sport.

Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) is skeptical of this plan, and one of the movie’s key subplots is the push-pull between how a corporation builds success (innovation, boldness, risk taking) and maintaining that success as a public company (pleasing the board with constant growth and good stock price performance). Air is more about business than it is about dunks, but the business side is compelling thanks to strong characterization and solid performances. Damon and Affleck do make a great team, and Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, and Matthew Maher round out the crew at Nike nicely, giving the basketball team there a scrappy feel.

On the other side of the negotiating table are the Jordans. Micheal (Damian Young) barely appears himself; a smart decision, as it keeps the focus on the story here and negates any threat of becoming a biopic. Rather, the focus is on his parents, James (Julius Tennon) and Deloris (Viola Davis). George Raveling (Marlon Wayans), a friend of Vaccaro and mentor to Jordan, encourages a meeting from both sides, and reminds Vaccaro that in Black family, the mother often is the one who calls the shots. The casting of Viola Davis is the one single choice that makes Air function as well as it does. While she does not appear until nearly halfway through the film, she is able to make the most of her screen time and provide an anchor to the Jordans’ side of the story. There’s no doubt that she can hold her own against Damon, but her presence is both maternal and commanding. Davis is entirely convincing that Deloris is the one holding all the cards, no matter how much her son loves Adidas. 

After Davis, the screenplay is Air’s best asset. Each character has at least some form of arc, and the exposition necessary to set the stakes and the world of basketball shoe endorsements is doled out smoothly. Everything in Air is just what it needs to be. And the production design is also noteworthy, as it is one of the best examples of representing how the 1980s actually looked, with brown, orange, teal-blue, and fluorescent pink being prominent colors in key moments and just a small splash of neon lights. That, even more than the I Love the 80s-style intro reel, sets the film in a specific time and place. 

Air does feel awkward at times when it tries to make a billion dollar company an underdog worth rooting for, however. That is something the film seems to be aware of, and a last minute swerve does what it can to mitigate that and slightly counteract the pro-business narrative that dominates much of the movie. But overall, Air has more fun with its colorful characters and the dramatic way they conduct business than any sort of nuanced commentary. It hits all of its big marks, makes a splash, and is as engaging to watch as the sport that drives the engine underneath it.