Air

Starring: Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Ben Affleck
Director: Ben Affleck
Running Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Rating: R

I hadn't been anticipating a movie like this in quite a while. Being a Tar Heel and a fan of MJ, I'm always interested in watching anything related to the GOAT. I'm also a big fan of Ben Affleck as a director (Argo, The Town, Gone Baby Gone are all excellent films) so this was a movie I was not going to miss. I also wasn't going to go to the movie theatre to watch it (ha) so I squealed with delight when I saw that it was available to stream on Amazon Prime. I quite enjoyed the film, but it does beg the question, why exactly did this movie need to get made, and why now? I feel a bit hypocritical asking that, but it does kind of feel like a group of friends doing a passion project, which is fine. We all know the outcome of the story - did we really need 1 hour and 51 minutes to tell it?

Aside from those questions, I really did find the film entertaining. Matt Damon shines, per usual, as Sonny Vaccaro, a basketball talent scout for Nike who believes an NBA rookie named Michael Jordan will save their shoe division. Enter excellent supporting castmates in Jason Bateman as chair of Marketing, Ben Affleck as Nike CEO Phil Knight, Chris Messina as MJ's agent and Viola Davis as the matriarch of the Jordan family. All eventually work together towards luring MJ away from competitors Converse and Adidas, but it's not an easy road.

The story takes place in the 80s, and they really drive home that fact - lots of iconic 80s tunes, clothes, office furniture - they do a good job setting the scene. Sometimes I felt the shots were too sepia-toned, but this was clearly a choice. It was also a choice for us to never see MJ's face, which I thought was interesting. Affleck has chosen to highlight the supporting characters in the Air Jordan story, instead of MJ himself. 

If anything, watch this film for some spectacular performances (Bateman and Davis really shine) and if you're a basketball fan. It's an entertaining 2 hours for sure, but at the end, you may ask yourself the same questions as me.