A crowd favorite at Michael Jordan level

With all due respect to Larry, Magic, LeBron and the rest of their elite NBA counterparts, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. Airthe story of how Nike convinced its Airness to sign with them instead of industry giants Converse and Adidas isn’t the cinematic equivalent of its iconic subject.

Nonetheless, as a film about the relationship between risk and reward, work and self, and personal and professional worth, it’s a compelling underdog saga that – like Ben Affleck’s previous directorial work – has baby gone, The city, And argon– has the kind of snappy energy and charm that should earn it a long shelf life after going to the cinema.

The American Dream is alive and in full swing Air (in theaters April 5), set in a year marked by 1984, thanks to an expertly edited opening montage to Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing ghostbustersRun-DMC, “Where’s the Beef?” and the Lakers and Celtics renewing their NBA Finals rivalry while wearing the shortest shorts this side of a Nair commercial.

In this era of fierce, profit-driven competition, Nike is also a leader in the sneaker business, claiming just 19 percent market share, mostly based on its popular running shoes. That leaves company basketball scout Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) in a precarious position, tasked with expanding the brand’s reach into an arena where it’s seen as boring, unimaginative and — worst of all, because of its success at young consumers – uncool applies.

Vaccaro’s office is Nike’s tape archive, and he spends his days and nights learning as much as he can about the hard court prospects that could make good Nike customers. He’s both a student and a gambler, as evidenced by the fact that he flew to Las Vegas from a high school game to spend a few hours placing big bets at the tables. Unfortunately for Vaccaro, however, under the stewardship of founder and CEO Phil Knight (Affleck), Nike has gone conservative when it comes to expanding its basketball presence, agreeing to allocate just $250,000 to three players from the ’84 draft class – an approach that’s as limited as his peers’ expertise on the game and its rising stars.

Vaccaro needs a brilliant idea to save his job and, in turn, Nike’s basketball sneaker division, and he finds it while rewatching the clip of University of North Carolina freshman Michael Jordan doing the jump shot scores to win the 1982 NCAA championship. In that one moment, guru-wizard genius Vaccaro astutely values ​​Jordan as a confident, once-in-a-lifetime talent and decides he’s the key to Nike’s basketball destiny.

The problem, however, is that Jordan has his heart set on Adidas — the dominant brand in town, thanks to their tracksuits, leather high-tops and hip-hop ties — and he has no interest in a potential offer from Nike listen even if it can keep up with its competitors, which Jordan’s super agent David Falk (Chris Messina) scornfully doubts.

Everywhere he turns, Vaccaro faces skepticism that Jordan is an attainable White Whale, be it from Chief Marketing Officer Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), VP of Player Relations Howard White (Chris Tucker), sneaker design maestro Peter Moore (Matthew Maher) or Knight, whom Affleck portrays as a bigwig with a fondness for Buddhist aphorisms, a habit of walking around the office barefoot, and a heart caught between kowtowing to the company’s board of directors and embracing the freewheeling spirit where Nike was built is trapped.

Vaccaro is undeterred, however, and soon he’s circumnavigating Falk to visit Jordan’s father James (Julius Tennon) and mother Deloris (Viola Davis) directly, delivering a lecture less about money and more about his belief in the coming Her son’s size and his own focused desire to make this the centerpiece of a campaign.

Air is a kindred spirit of AMC’s Stop and catch fire, in that both are stories about 1980s visionaries who see the future of the paradigm shift on the horizon and strive to make those around them aware of it too – at great risk to themselves and others. Vaccaro is the first to recognize Jordan’s unmatched promise and, just as crucially, to understand the capitalist importance of blurring the line between human and commodity until the two are indistinguishable from one another.

This breakthrough is linked in the film to Deloris’ belief that everyone’s worth should be properly recognized – something that applies in business as well as in the arts, which is reflected in fact Air was produced by Affleck and Damon’s Artists Equity, which gives crew members a fair share of a film’s profits.

AirThe outcome of is no secret, but Alex Convery’s script is a snappy and boisterous device that hits every feel-good button and defines its characters through heartfelt speeches and witty banter – highlighted by a hilarious Falk phone call allowing Messina to practically run the show to steal. A chubby Damon turns Vaccaro into a little engine that’s easy to find. Davis, Bateman and Tucker — as well as Marlon Wayans as George Raveling, who recounts how he received Martin Luther King Jr.’s copy of his “I Have a Dream” speech — are charismatic and colorful supporting actors, each taking the spotlight for a few scenes .

Meanwhile, director Affleck (who works with world-class cinematographer Robert Richardson) keeps things agile and animated, using a combination of nimble camera movements, circular pans, intimate close-ups, and a soundtrack of ’80s hits from the likes of Cyndi Lauper. Night Ranger, REO Speedwagon and Violent Femmes.

Jordan himself is played by an actor with his back to the audience; The true icon of the Chicago Bulls is only seen in non-fiction. Given that, it’s a wise decision by Affleck Air has only time to invent one mythology—namely, that of American entrepreneurship and free-market innovation, by men and women (in both the Nike and Jordan camps) united in racial and class solidarity to to revolutionize the role and power of the dreamers, the seers and the high-rollers.

Ripped from recent history books, it is a nostalgic fable about the nation’s enduring capitalist spirit and individuals’ ability to harness it for the better. No matter how many awards it receives, it’s a winner.

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