AIR 4K 2023 2160p WEB-DL

The story of a collaboration between the Nike athletic shoe brand and basketball player Michael Jordan in the 1980s. The contract was signed thanks to sports marketing manager Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon).

AIR 4K Review
The year is 1984. Nike has already made a name for itself, but its fame is very limited: the brand is known mainly for running shoes. But in the promising direction of basketball shoes it is strongly overtaken by Adidas and Converse. They have contracts with the best athletes in the NBA, and they get their hands on all the promising rookies. Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a man of no particular profession, the kind of scout who helps Nike invest in the right players, tries to fix this. He convinces company president Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) to invest the entire budget of the basketball division in just one man: young Michael Jordan, a kid who has never set foot in the NBA. To do so, though, they'll first have to convince the athlete's mother, Deloris (Viola Davis), that their company has more to offer than giant brands.

"Air" is Affleck's first directorial work in as much as 7 years: before that Ben did not allow himself such breaks and steadily made movies every 2-4 years. Brought down by the director, it seems, a series of personal and creative failures. During this time he managed to fail financially with the ambitious "Law of Night", missed "Batman" and become the object of much speculation, based on pictures with an overly sad face. One can understand why he returns to the director's chair with a project as safe as possible -- an academic biopic about success against all odds, whose plot somehow revolves around one of the major cultural icons of modern America, Michael Jordan. Plus, "Air" enters the already familiar waters of Affleck's "Operation Argo." In the sense that it is also a movie about little people making big history, knowing full well that their names are just a few people to remember.

Except, of course, in "Air" the director is too straightforward in conveying important meanings. Heroes of the picture now and then begin to talk Oscar monologues. Viola Davis's character generally looks like an amalgam of all the strong-willed mothers who are usually at least nominated for "Best Supporting Actress": not so long ago, exactly the same characters were played by Kathy Bates in "The Case of Richard Jewell" and Onjana Ellis in "King Richard". Jason Bateman and, for example, Chris Tucker also have their own dramatic outings. The former tells a tearful story about his daughter, because of whom he has no way of losing his job. The latter, meanwhile, spends most of the movie playing his familiar role of the gabby, good-natured sidekick (even though he is, in fact, Damon's boss) - but also gets a scene at the end with a meaningful stare into the void. Only Michael Jordan himself does not participate in the parade of motivational speeches in any way: symbolically worshipping the idol of millions, Affleck does not even show the basketball player's face once. So as not to smear the image of the Great with someone else's face, even if it is the most talented one.

Sonny Vaccaro's story itself is not nearly as incendiary as it may first appear. For a classic underdog, everything comes too easy for him. Yes, Nike has no money for contracts with promising basketball players, and Jordan at first is utterly refusing to even look at their sneakers, but all these problems are resolved surprisingly easily - you just have to turn on Matt Damon's charisma and have a heart-to-heart talk with a couple of the right people. Putting aside all the tinsel, the story turns out to be frustratingly sterile: the main character was right from the start, convinced everyone that he was right, and in the end really turned out to be right. And Affleck himself also seems to understand the non-conflict nature of the story taken from life. Hence all the tearful monologues and high-minded speeches - padding the dramaturgical cost of not the most poignant story.

And from there, too, an uncomfortable number of minor formalist stunts. Affleck periodically exercises an almost video-esque style of storytelling: mounting various kinds of titles together, mixing footage with archival footage. Many scenes are quasi-documentary, with sharp "zooms," intentional defocus and deliberately sloppy gluing. This is not so much to ground the story as to artificially speed up the pace where the film gets too bogged down in the endless office turmoil. Sometimes, though, it works. For a film with no particular dramatic stakes and characters mostly walking around gray cubbies and chatting, "Air" is surprisingly easy to watch. It's also a credit to debutant screenwriter Alex Convery - between a dozen pathos-filled passages, he manages to insert a bunch of really witty dialogue as well. Watching Damon have a fight with Agent Jordan or Warden Phil is far more entertaining than watching good talented people make sure they're good talented people.