I believe Air was the first “big” movie to have come out directly to a streaming platform in 2023, and I remember hearing great things about it. But since I don’t follow the NBA, neither have I own Air Nike, I wasn’t in a big rush to see this movie until now. As every movie lover knows, the end of a year is when you try to cram and see as much as possible to make your list, gather your thoughts and get some potential Oscar candidates watched, so I finally got around to watching the “shoe movie”. Not surprisingly, it’s much more than that.

This movie is a biopic through and through, so there isn’t much to be surprised by at this point, since we have had so many and keep getting more each year. The only real surprise for me was just how much I enjoyed it, as Air made me invested and almost worried whether or not Nike made it. It’s one of those rare biopics where literally everyone who watches it knows what happens; it’s impossible to find someone who has never heard of Nike or Michal Jordan. Even I, who isn’t into basketball and again never owned Nike shoes, have known about this combination and how successful they have been. But Air takes you back to the 80s so well that you are willing to forget about the juggernaut Nike had become since and gladly watch Nike, the almost underdog, trailing both to Converse and Adidas.

I think the main reason is Ben Affleck (one of the stars and director of Air) not only lived through the 80s, but for him, it was the formative decade, as he was born in 1972, so he matured throughout that decade and succeeded where other “nostalgia trip” movies didn’t. He didn’t try to emulate the 80s; he recreated the 80s. And not just with the constant music, hair, wardrobe etc. It was mainly the feel, the vibe of the 80s he managed to recreate that decade as he remembered it, and that helped massively.

Another thing that I wasn’t ready for was just how funny this movie is. Here is the thing; when you make a movie about how a shoe company signed a future megastar, it’s not as thrilling because we know how it ends. But if you take us back and make it funny without overdoing it, now you have something on your hands. There are many funny moments in this movie, but my favourite ones must be the phone conversations between Matt Damon and Chris Messina as they are not only hilarious but from the first phone call, you get their entire love-hate relationship.

Speaking of actors, I thought Damon did a great job; Affleck was clever to give himself a role where his character stood out but didn’t have many scenes. The two performers who stood out above the rest for me were Chris Tucker and Viola Davis. Writing “another great performance by Viola Davis” seems redundant at this point, as she is on the same level as Meryl Streep, in my eyes. No matter what she does, she is always the standout in pretty much every movie and has been for a while now. In Air, she plays Jordan’s mom (personally picked by Jordan himself!), and she plays her so well, you know from the first minute what she is about, but mainly, she is the mom everyone would want to have in their corner. It’s been almost a decade since Tucker was in anything, but damn, I missed him. I don’t think I have ever seen him as great as he was in this movie, but that might be because I usually think of him as the “funny, goofy guy”. Well, this Chris Tucker is more than that, and I am here for this part of his career.

I also liked the decision that we, the audience, never see Michael Jordan. Respectively, we never see his face. I know the official reason (Ben Affleck saying nobody could play Michael but Michael because he is that famous, so he didn’t want to cast anybody younger so we would not have to suspend our disbelief), but I would like to think it also fits thematically. The movie is about him, but in a way, it’s not. It’s about Nike and their rise and his family (mainly his mom) making the decision(s) for him because he wasn’t “the Michael Jordan”. He was still a young player like thousands before him, hoping to be the “next big thing”. So I liked how us not seeing his face works on that level, as he isn’t fully in control of his life yet, and he has got everything in front of him.

The only bad thing I can say against Air is that the ending lost a bit of steam. There were a few scenes where I thought the movie was about to end, and it kept going. I understand going against the biopic expectations and not ending your film on the “win”, which in this case is closing the deal (spoiler, but not really). But there is a reason movies and mainly biopics tend to end on that note, as everything that happens after, no matter how meaningful, is not as impactful. But that’s only a tiny criticism; I can’t say that the ending was bad or it spoiled my enjoyment of this movie; all I am saying is, maybe if it lingered less and managed to cut out about ten minutes, you would have a perfect biopic on your hands.

Overall, Air is a great movie that manages the impossible. It makes you care whether or not a shoe company signs a future superstar. And not just any shoe company and not any superstar. Air puts you back in time before Nike was the giant it is, and Michael Jordan’s career was about to begin and, therefore, blow up. And when you make an almost two-hour movie out of that, and it manages to make you laugh, care and hold your attention for the majority of its runtime, something is right. Air is definitely worth watching.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke