Review 683: Air

                                                                                                                   It may not feature the most original of titles by Air is a darn good inspirational biographical sports drama film and a glowing example of how Ben Affleck and Matt Damon bring out the best in each other.

In 1984, Nike, Inc. is on the verge of bankruptcy due to low footwear sales. In response to this, Marketing VP Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) along with co-founder and CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck who also directs) task Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), Nike's basketball talent scout with signing rookie Michael Jordan to a deal to wear their shoes creating a partnership that revolutionises the world of sports and contemporary culture.

At its core, Air is a film about licensing the rights to somebody's image to sell a shoe. But thanks to a surprisingly smart, witty and heartfelt script from Alex Convery, 

Ben Affleck’s direction is sharp wether that would include fast cutting or a rotating camera that coupled with the films manic energy gives the film a great sense of pacing. The cinematography is terrific, shooting the film with Arri Alexa 35 film camera gives the feeling that it actually was made in the early 80s and captures the bright colourful aesthetic of that time. The production design is splendid, the costumes are fantastic 

Matt Damon brings his usual likeable and amiable charm to the part of Sonny Vaccaro

Ben Affleck 

Marlon Waynes

Chris Tucker basically plays himself in the role of Nike executive Howard White but it works well for this and his usual manic energy is   

Chris Messina  playing Michael Jordan’s agent David Falk. 

Jason Batman is alot of fun as Rob Strasser, a man who's got nothing in his life but his job. 

Viola Davis is very strong playing Deloris Jordan, the mother Michael Jordan