Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, Chris Messina, Matthew Maher, Chris Tucker, Viola Davis  
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 112 mins

Air is a biographical sports drama centred around the origin of the Air Jordan basketball shoeline. More importantly, it’s the first film to be directed by Ben Affleck since 2016’s Live By Night. Prior to that aforementioned film, Affleck enjoyed a string of critical successes from Gone Baby Gone to The Town, culminating in Argo, which won the Best Picture Oscar in 2012. Although I found Live By Night to be thoroughly entertaining and sporadically gripping, many found it to be a major disappointment. Affleck was then attached to direct The Batman but left the project due to a packed schedule. 

Of course, the fact Affleck’s been busy playing Batman since directing Live By Night in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League (and the vastly superior director’s cut) explains his hiatus behind the screen. And in any case, outside of Batman, he’s taken on interesting projects such as Triple Frontier, The Last Duel and the critically panned Deep Water, which I really enjoyed. 

Back to Air, the film opens as Nike Inc. is on the verge of shutting its basketball division. The company’s basketball talent scout Sonny Vaccaro (Affleck reuniting with Good Will Hunting co-star and writer Matt Damon) is tasked to find new players to sponsor. Very much an underdog company compared to the giant it is today, Vaccaro is told Nike are happy to sponsor three athletes. After obsessively watching gameplay of Jordan and convinced of his future stardom, Vaccaro decides he’d rather spend all of the budget just on Jordan, much to the disagreement of both Marketing VP Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) and co-founder and CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck). They not only argue he is too expensive for the meagre budget Nike has, they are convinced Jordan will want to stick with his preferred Adidas partnership. 

Although at its core, the concept of a biopic about a pair of shoes may sound pretty dull, Affleck manages to spin an entertaining yarn on the relentless pursuit of what we now know to be a sport-defining outcome. Air is good fun in the moment and has a particularly strong script by first-time Alex Convery, full of sharp quips and meaningful character development. An early scene in which Vaccaro rejects the possible partnerships Strasser suggests is particularly peppery and gives an early insight into the psyche of the film’s personalities.  

There’s some great performances too – Matt Damon is reliably fun as the determined Vaccaro. He’s well aware he could lose his job and makes some unconventional decisions, such as visiting the Jordan family in-person which is considered a big no-no and Jordan’s fiery agent David Falk (Chris Messina) is particularly livid at the stunt. Affleck is clearly having fun as the somewhat impenetrable CEO and it’s refreshing to see Jason Bateman in a more serious role, arguably his first since his career-best performance in The Gift. Viola Davis is also excellent as Jordan’s mother, very much the deciding figure over how her son’s career will progress. The underrated Matthew Maher is also terrific as shoe designer, Peter Moore as is Chris Tucker in his first role since 2016’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk as marketer Howard White. 

However, while Air is fun in the moment, it’s a frothy film and doesn’t leave a particularly long lasting impression. Affleck doesn’t particularly inject a great deal of his personality behind the screen and surprisingly, even regular collaborator (as well as Quentin Tarantino’s preferred cinematographer) Robert Richardson’s lensing feels rather anonymous. Although the jukebox soundtrack captures the 1984 setting, it’s somewhat obvious and distracting. 

Whilst Air is a lively, fast-paced and warm biopic, it’s a little disappointing considering Affleck’s directorial back catalogue. A tinge of darkness would have really elevated the film and would have played to Affleck’s strengths. However, if you momentarily forget the powerhouse crew behind the film, Air is a fun crowd-pleaser about the pursuit of a basketball icon and how he came to wear an endearing shoe. 

⭐⭐⭐ (Good)