13.6.23
Dad-rock! Air is a simple tale which plays it safe, but it has so many endearing and effective parts, it’s hard not to like.
The opening montage scene impeccably establishes the mood, throwing the audience into a world of neon signage, bad haircuts and Adidas tracksuits. It’s a film with a firm identity and grants its target audience precisely what they desire: 80s nostalgia and a bombastic rock and hip-hop soundtrack. Thinking of it as the younger brother of Top Gun Maverick may seem like faint praise, but it is an honest comparison.
One of my favourite elements in Air is its adept use of profanity, which makes some of the dialogue-rich scenes between Damon’s characters and his rivals very funny and memorable. It’s not on the level of The Big Short or Wolf of Wall Street in terms of quality or effectiveness but it’s playing by a similar blueprint. I also enjoyed how the film presents Nike as an underdog business, which is something I had never considered or imagined before. In that sense it allows the film to play out as the little people versus the giants (Converse and Adidas), in a hopeful journey to triumph.
But most impressive and surprising are the emotional and heartfelt moments of Air. Chris Tucker’s character injects a remarkable amount of heart into the film; no doubt his best screentime since the first Rush Hour, and the key moment of Matt Damon’s speech feels so genuine and sincere. It’s an odd but functional decision to never show the face of Michael Jordan, even though he’s in many of the boardroom scenes, but that allows Viola Davis to take charge, and more importantly, it smartly allows James Jordan’s face and reactions to pinpoint the direction of the story in an entertaining fashion.
Air might not compare to the masterpiece Hoop Dreams or even the fantastic Netflix show The Last Dance, but it’s a solid 3-pointer with great cultural references and likeable characters. Just don’t take it personal that Michael Jordan is barely in it.