With all due respect to Larry, Magic, LeBron and the rest of their elite NBA counterparts, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. Air, the story of how Nike convinced his Airness to sign with them rather than industry powerhouses Converse and Adidas, is not the cinematic equivalent of its legendary subject.
Nonetheless, as a film about the relationship between risk and reward, work and self, and personal and professional value, it’s a rousing underdog saga that—like Ben Affleck’s prior directorial efforts Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo—has the type of snappy energy and charm that should earn it a long post-theatrical shelf life.
The American Dream is alive and well in Air (in theaters April 5), which—courtesy of an expertly edited opening montage scored to Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing”—situates itself in a 1984 marked by Ghostbusters, Run-DMC, “Where’s the Beef?”, and the Lakers and Celtics renewing their rivalry in the NBA Finals, while wearing the shortest shorts this side of a Nair commercial.
