Air Review: Ben Affleck Is Ironically the Weakest Link of His Own Movie
From the opening seconds of Air, Ben Affleck is making sure that you are fully cemented in the film's 1984 setting. These are the songs everyone was listening to, these are the brands everyone was buying, these are the people that were always on the news. There's nothing wrong with this as a means to opening the film; in fact, being a movie that is entirely about a brand, it makes sense. It's also incredibly effective. But by the end of the movie, however, this does make its "How did the Air Jordan shoes get made at Nike" story feel hollow on the whole. This isn't a movie about human ingenuity that overcame the odds to save lives, it's just about how great it is to make a bunch of money. Even feeling all that afterward, though, Air is a crowdpleaser unlike anything else released this year.
After hitting you in the head with a sledgehammer so you know this is set in the 1980s, Air hits the ground running with its narrative. Matt Damon's Sonny Vaccaro is an employee at Nike that works in their basketball division, consistently playing third fiddle to Converse and Adidas. Ever in trouble because of this, Vaccaro intends to make the biggest risk of his career by betting everything on incoming NBA rookie Michael Jordan. Though the basketball star apparently has no interest in dealing with Nike, Vaccaro won't take no for an answer. You may already know how this plays out by looking down at your feet.
Matt Damon, as always, remains a rock-solid performer. Is there anything really to differentiate what he's doing in Air from what he's doing in his other Guy-Makes-Things-Wonderful-for-His-Boss movie Ford v Ferrari? Not especially, no. If you liked what you saw there, the same Dad energy that persists in this stage of Damon's career is present, and it's still fun to watch! There's nothing wrong with this; it's largely just what Damon is doing these days, and there's a reason audiences are interested.
Damon is flanked by a supporting cast that is a major ensemble, all of whom are here to do what they do best. Jason Bateman? He's going to be dry, sarcastic, and smarmy. Chris Tucker? He's going to be hilarious. Viola Davis? She's going to bring a sense of gravitas that makes you feel the entire weight of the movie's narrative. Chris Messina? He'll have you laughing while wondering, wait, what did he just say? Meanwhile, Matthew Maher is one of the standouts of Air. After having a big year in 2022 with the hilarious Funny Pages and Our Flag Means Death, he brings the exact kind of character actor energy that makes him a fan favorite. Though he only has a few scenes, his presence is memorable in all of them.
Ironically, the weakest link in the entire movie is Ben Affleck himself – not his work behind the camera, which is what makes the heart of the movie beat, but what he does in front of it. Very generously casting himself as the CEO of Nike Phil Knight, Affleck carries himself like a featured cast member of Saturday Night Live that has been assigned an impression he can't actually do.
Academy Award winner Robert Richardson works as the cinematographer for the film, bringing a level of austerity that is normally not given to biopic adjacent movies such as Air. Having won Academy Awards for movies like Hugo, The Aviator, and JFK, you can really feel on a visual level that the narrative of Air is being considered in a different view from movies like it. Richardson uses intense close-ups to really show off faces in the film, making the intimate nature of the story feel more personal while also delivering some engaging and artful imagery.
There is also an inherent sadness baked into Air. The ticking clock of the Nike employees that are figuring out their pitch for the shoes to the Jordan family plays like other notable Damon movies The Martian and Ford v Ferrari. Here is our problem, how do we as a group solve it? As a result, we get glimpses into the lives of these people, and all of them are tragic, some bitter. These are men so dedicated to their work that their lives outside of it are husks. But because we know the legacy of Air Jordans as a shoe and where Nike sits in the world of business and culture, it's played as being worth it in the end. Naturally, though, there's no hint that the things wrong with the personal lives of these characters are resolved just because they did a great thing for their employer. Air wants to offer its entire narrative as a victory for everyone, when it's really not.
Though it's played with the utmost sincerity, and maintains the tonality that its ending is not certain, the fact of the matter is everyone in the audience knows the ending of Air before it starts. The quality of the filming and its ability to heighten tension throughout is admirable, but unlike other movies, the conclusion is in neon and visible from space. That said, it's about the journey, not the destination, as they say, and the cast of Air is what makes this a compelling watch and a fun movie – even if by the time you're in the car there's no part of you that was surprised.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Air opens exclusively in movie theaters on Wednesday, April 5th.