Air - Der große Wurf

I managed to watch this at an early screening and I was pleasantly surprised.

Of course most people know Michael Jordan and how he arguably is the best basketball player of all time and potentially best athlete of all time. But I bet a fair few people don't know the behind the doors story of how the most popular sneaker came into creation. This is where Air comes in.

Right from the very start, the movie brings you along for the journey, engaging at every possible moment instead of just telling it to your face. The script was really well written to achieve this.

The acting was too notch, particularly from Damon and Davis. At times you forget they are portraying real people.

It was surprisingly funny at times and whilst you know the end of the story, the movie still gets you routing for everything to work out.

For me, this is the first Oscar worthy film of the year (primarily for acting and screenplay) but credit should also be given to Afflecks direction. Just like Argo, he's got another directorial hit and his hands.

We need more films like this right now. No agenda. No politics. Just an interesting (and true) story that entertains us. Write some dialogue, grab some cameras, get solid actors, and go to work. There's nothing complicated in this film. There no mystery to solve, no giant set pieces, just a fantastic time on the screen. The 80s are shown a ton of love in every aspect of the film. I am liking Matt Damon more as an actor as his career moves on. He's not above setting his star power aside and concentrate on being an actor and it works so well here. Too much can never be said about Ben Affleck as a director. He's one of the best working right now. As solid a movie as you will ever watch.

This is an extremely engaging and entertaining film that manages to mine suspense out of a story you already know the ending of. You know that Nike ... at the time the third place loser in the basketball shoe market ... managed to get Michael Jordan to sign with them and created the Air Jordan shoe. To a large degree the film is about HOW Sonny Vaccaro (in the form of Matt Damon) pulled off this feat, but it also makes you doubt IF it's going to happen. That's good storytelling.

It's also a pretty funny film ... more than I expected. Mostly due to Jason Bateman, Chris Turcker (who I am not a fan of, but is really quite good here) and a bravely self-deprecating Ben Affleck, although Dave Messina steals many scenes as Jordan's agent.

It's really so well put together than you start to forget that Nike is hardly an underdog, and this is really a film about a multi-billion dollar company becoming even bigger and making a soon-to-be-very-wealthy athlete even wealthier. It's a nice trick.

My only real complaint about the film is that it's WAY too dedicated to reminding you that it's set in 1984.

After finishing this film, I couldn't shake the idea that there was a better film in there. I'm not 100% sure, having seen it so recently, what would be needed to bring out that better film, but I suspect it may have to do with the choice not only to NOT center Michael jordan, but to have him as an incidental fringe character in the film altogether. It's an interesting choice to include his mother and her perspective, but it still feels like this is a story about the wrong people. Not that all of these people shouldn't have been included in this story, but that the exclusion of Jordan and his perspective leaves a little bit of a hole. All of that said, it was an enjoyable enough watch and if you live through this period of time or have a passion for the shoes now, you'll probably find it interesting. Viola Davis is of course, amazing.

I'm a pretty big fan of films that revolve around the behind-the-scenes drama of professional sports. Films like Air will always grab my attention and become a must-see in my mind. For that reason alone, on top of knowing that Ben Affleck directed it, I had high hopes as well. After seeing it, I'm happy to say that I had a great time at the movies. This supremely written film deserves your attention and here's why.

Decades ago, the company of Nike wasn't worth all that much and not many athletes even wanted to be sponsored by them. Air tells the story of Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a man who is on the verge of his career ending, when he gets the crazy idea to put the entire good will and fortune of the Nike brand at risk. He risks everything to try and get Michael Jordan to agree to sign with them, thus designing what is widely known now as the Air Jordan shoe. It's a very simple story about a man who knows the potential of something, while everyone around him thinks what he wants to accomplish is impossible. It's an underdog story that's not even directly about an athlete and it's done incredibly well.

The star of this film is easily Alex Convery. You haven't heard of him? Well, until today I hadn't either. He is the screenwriter of this film and the dialogue from start to finish is what took this film from the generic true story category to something that's a must-watch. This is his first screenplay, ever. Yes, a film that I will currently call my favourite of the year so far, was written by a guy who had never written a feature film outside of this one (at least none that got made). Hearing about this just made me ludicrously excited that people still get chances taken on them in Hollywood. Convery wrote a terrific screenplay here and I hope he continues to get work.

Ben Affleck does a great job directing this film, getting fantastic performances out of everyone involved. Matt Damon is committed and it's one of his best performances in years. Jason Bateman's dry humour is all over this movie and I couldn't get enough of it. Viola Davis as Michael Jordan's mother was also great (as always), but who really stood out to me as the MVP was Chris Tucker. He's both funny and hits all the dramatic beats his character required. I haven't seen him in a meaty role like this in a while and I was pleasantly surprised.

Look, I'm not about to sit here and say this is one of the best films of all time or that it's groundbreaking in any way, but Air just ticked all the boxes of enjoyment for me. Well-acted, well-written, well-directed, it's fun to watch and even though you know how the story ends, it's still very engaging. For non-sports fans or people who don't know about sponsorships and how they work in professional sports, I think Air is still a movie for you because it never showcases any actual Basketball (other than on a television) and the inner workings of this company is just interesting in general. Air is now playing in theatres and I think many people will enjoy it. I absolutely recommend this one.