‘Air’ is not Oscar-worthy,
but it could just as well
be called ‘Parasite’
There’s a long-forgotten Chicago shoe deal of the mid-1980s. Walter Payton, on the short list of most beloved athletes of all time, started wearing sneakers by the brand KangaROOS. ROOS presumably chose its name for the pockets in each shoe. Not only did Payton wear ROOS shoes, he wore the T-shirts, towels, sweatbands and headbands. It evidently wasn’t enough — ROOS essentially went defunct by the 1990s.
One can just imagine all of the declarations, testimonials and predictions of Ben Affleck’s “Air” being made, practically verbatim, in the ROOS offices of the time. “We’ve got to have a big-name player.” “This company hinges on the right endorsement.” “Whatever our budget is for this, go higher.” “At other shoemakers, you’re just another athlete.” “He’s The One.” Those are not actual quotes from “Air.” To correctly transcribe the countless speeches in this film would take hours. You get the point.
Marketing, see, is finicky. Brutally finicky. Why it works, or doesn’t work, is rarely obvious. Its highly compensated purveyors such as Sonny Vaccaro probably see it as a religion. Does success go to the most pious? Or the most lucky? Someone at Wendy’s was probably arguing adamantly that “We need a celebrity eating our burgers” at the same time someone else suggested saving money by having an elderly woman shout “Where’s the beef?”
Sonny Vaccaro will succeed not because of any strategy or cost-cutting plan, but because of his heart. He actually believes in this. He is portrayed in “Air” by Matt Damon, who curiously plays a gambleholic in “Rounders” who is failing on several levels and only achieves breakthrough success when he succumbs to his gut feeling. Sonny does make percentage bets on basketball players all the time and apparently beats the system. But facing a career crisis of irrelevancy, he needs more than a good guess. He must be the athletic industry’s St. Peter.
A shrine to marketing and recruiting, “Air” tells us that brand, not product, is what matters. How good are the shoes? The Jordans couldn’t care less. The sneakers just need to look and sound good. We’ll make the plaster cast of Michael’s foot some other time. Does Nike actually boast any technical superiority in shoemaking to Converse, adidas, Reebok, Puma, New Balance, Skechers? Factories — cost and quality — are huge in this business. Probably Nike’s biggest edge is or was the ability to scale adequate production in other countries.
The visuals in “Air” are a major challenge for Affleck. Middle-aged guys spending a weekend sitting around an office in rumpled clothing. Not terribly exciting. No women involved in this process, thus, Affleck lets the camera curiously stare a bit at a couple instances of eye candy at Nike HQ, one being treated as a secretary.
Everyone knows the outcome of this story. For those who somehow don’t, there is an abundance of screen text with facts and figures. Of course this material is best-suited as a book.
But wait. Affleck is savvy; he gets why this matters. The filmmakers were teenagers in the mid-’80s, and Affleck’s walk down memory lane of pop culture is a treat. It doesn’t and can’t carry the movie, but it’s a necessary embellishment. The music is a little too relentless for about an hour but a reminder of the day when teens consulted MTV, rather than Instagram, for trends. The movie correctly asserts that Air Jordans may have been the biggest.
Affleck also understands that agents, whether righteous or sleazy, are entertaining. (Especially when sleazy.) Those who see “Air” at a theater will note the most audience laughter occurring during David Falk scenes. Falk is the villain because someone has to ... try to prevent Sonny from offering a client more money.
What “Air” ignores is that Falk made an even bigger score than Sonny, attaching himself early to the player who would become the world’s highest-grossing athlete. That was no fluke; Falk was an NBA powerhouse from about 1980. Sonny should’ve bluntly asked Falk, “So what did you say to him to get this gig?”
Falk’s punch lines are funny, but his fast-talking dialogue is often hard to follow and confusing. After several go-rounds, it’s unclear whether he’s trying to elicit higher bids from Sonny or whether he just wants Sonny to go away.
It’s a weakness that “Air” strongly suggests that contacting the athlete directly is taboo. Is that because the athlete is too majestic? Or because he’s not worth their time? (See how the cynicism can pile up here?) There may be unwritten rules about approaching, but it probably depends on the athlete. Why the Falk character seems intent on dismissing bidders — like the auctioneer going around the room and mocking attendees, “You don’t have enough money to buy this one” — seems ridiculous. He should be playing them off each other and calling them constantly. Here is the Catch-22: If Sonny actually believes anything Falk is saying, he’s too dumb to pull off this movie, but he does apparently believe it, in order to justify the climactic surprise.
Falk can be dubious but not despised in this film; everyone has to be smiles in the end. Affleck deems Falk the co-creator, by chance, of the all-important nickname/brand “Air,” which was elevated to untold heights by Jordan’s greatness and persona. The Nike scientist apparently thought of that one, too, according to the film, so, like the AP and UPI used to do for indecisive college football seasons, we can have split champions.
Nike is sort of a co-villain — its anonymous board doesn’t want to do anything fun, and its figurehead, Phil Knight, is struggling because he’s trying to straddle the visionary/corporate divide and needs his own values clarified by the likes of Sonny. Despite actually being a juggernaut by about 1980, Affleck’s Nike is somehow the underdog; after all, if Rocky Balboa had had several previous title bouts and won a few, that match with Apollo wouldn’t have been such a big deal. Still, again, Affleck seizes on something, Nike’s appeal as an offbeat operation, where (according to this film) guys in golf shirts can wander into the CEO’s office, where staffers can watch sports highlights all day, where anyone apparently can park in front of the HQ’s front door.
It’s curious how Sonny concludes that Michael Jordan is indeed The One. He does this not by watching recent clips of Jordan, such as in the 1984 Olympics in which he starred, but by watching the last 20 seconds of the 1982 NCAA Championship Game and determining that legendary coach Dean Smith designed a shot for Michael Jordan with 17 seconds left because Smith didn’t trust the ability of his then-star, James Worthy, who scored 28 points in the game and made 13 of 17 attempts, to get a shot off. Smith passed away years ago and cannot dispute this account. Vaccaro apparently did not watch tournament games in 1983 and 1984 in which North Carolina’s Jordan-led team was upset each year by much lesser foes. Worthy, by the way, was also a Falk client. Oh well, another movie.
Someone, obviously Jordan, instructed Affleck to include a left-field reference to George Raveling. Like the Falk portrayal, the actor doesn’t begin to physically resemble the person. But details don’t really matter. Falk’s Wikipedia page states that the dramatic hook that cements the deal for Nike and the Jordans was offered by Nike, not Mrs. Jordan.
A prominent sports columnist saw the movie and wrote that “Air” on some level is about “the glorification of pursuing the god of profit at the expense of morality.” He adds, “There’s no makeup, no veneer, no pretending that anything matters except money and power,” which he finds “unusual” and “haunting.”
Fair enough. Still, “Air” seems more a tale of leeching. Wealthy or comfortable grown men whose own careers are more important than the athletes’, making a living off of the everyday products of young jocks, battling among each other to earn a better lifestyle or greater prestige and, maybe worst of all, happily ranking and discarding the also-rans such as Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Terence Stansbury and Mel Turpin, anyone deemed incapable of improving the grownups’ lot in life. Ask Affleck’s Phil Knight if this endeavor represents quality corporate values. He might just say: You were the first on your block to own a pair of Air Jordans. What more do you want?
3 stars
(April 2023)
“Air” (2023)
Starring
Matt Damon
as Sonny Vaccaro
♦
Jason Bateman
as Rob Strasser
♦
Ben Affleck
as Phil Knight
♦
Chris Messina
as David Falk
♦
Viola Davis
as Deloris Jordan
♦
Julius Tennon
as James Jordan
♦
Damian Young
as Michael Jordan
♦
Chris Tucker
as Howard White
♦
Matthew Maher
as Peter Moore
♦
Gustaf Skarsgård
as Horst Dassler
♦
Barbara Sukowa
as Kathe Dassler
♦
Jay Mohr
as John Fisher
♦
Joel Gretsch
as John O’Neill
♦
Michael O’Neill
as Joe Dean
♦
Marlon Wayans
as George Raveling
♦
Asanté Deshon
as 7-Eleven Clerk
♦
Billy Smith
as Bill
♦
Al Madrigal
as Tim
♦
Jackson Damon
as Stan
♦
Dan Bucatinsky
as Richard
♦
Jessica Green
as Katrina Sainz
♦
Gabrielle Bourne
as Tiffany
♦
Joshua Funk
as Yes Man
♦
Andy Hirsch
as Robinson
♦
Tami Jordan
as Sports Book Clerk
♦
Jeff Cook
as Jeff
♦
Albert Stroth
as Al
♦
Mackenzie Rayne
as Susan
♦
Jerry Plummer
as Waiter
Directed by: Ben Affleck
Written by: Alex Convery
Producer: Ben Affleck
Producer: Madison Ainley
Producer: Jason Michael Berman
Producer: Matt Damon
Producer: David Ellison
Producer: Peter Guber
Producer: Jeff Robinov
Producer: Jesse Sisgold
Producer: Jon Weinbach
Co-producer: Alex Convery
Co-producer: Gigi Fouquet
Co-producer: Sasha Veneziano
Co-producer: David Webb
Executive producer: Dana Goldberg
Executive producer: John Graham
Executive producer: Don Granger
Executive producer: Kevin Halloran
Executive producer: Michael Joe
Executive producer: Jordan Moldo
Executive producer: Peter E. Strauss
Executive producer: Drew Vinton
Cinematography: Robert Richardson
Editing: William Goldenberg
Casting: Lindsay Graham Ahanonu, Mary Vernieu
Production design: François Audouy
Art direction: A. Todd Holland (supervising art director), Gary McMonnies, Jason Perrine, Katrina Sainz
Set decoration: Henry Somarriba (set dresser), David Smith (Additional Set Decorator)
Costumes: Charlese Antoinette Jones
Makeup and hair: Carla Farmer, Luisa Abel, Jessica Lou Allen, Kerrin Jackson, Shian S. Banks, Kauilani Goodwyn, Stacey Morris
Head of physical production: Glenn S. Gainor
Unit production manager: Kevin Halloran
Unit production manager: Sasha Veneziano
Post-production supervisor: Jeffrey Harlacker
Post-production supervisor: Jason Miller
Second unit asst. production supervisor: Jim Wacker
Stunts: Sean Graham, Tom McComas, Craig Frosty Silva, Donny Bailey, Patrick Millin, Peter Moore
