Now, I’m not much for sports, but are football fans going to enjoy seeing an ad about a basketball player during Sunday’s Super Bowl? Much less one that pussyfoots around the star athlete it’s actually about?
Air—the new film directed by Ben Affleck, co-starring Affleck and his BFF Matt Damon, out April 5—aims to hook sports fanatics already glued to their televisions with its first televised trailer drop this Sunday. But ahead of the $7 million ad slot, Amazon Studios has released the trailer online for anyone who just can’t wait to see how cinema rallies around the white guys who made Michael Jordan’s flagship Nike collaboration a reality.
The trailer opens with the voice of Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), former head of marketing at Nike, saying that “1984 has been a tough year.” Everything at the brand is down: growth, sales, and morale. Nike has been going head-to-head with iconic shoe brands like Converse, and it’s being mopped across the floor. In a hail-mary act of desperation, Nike co-founder Phil Knight (Affleck) brings in renegade marketing exec Sonny Vaccaro (Damon) to shake things up for the brand’s next move.
Vacarro spends nights at the office, reviewing countless tapes of players that Nike can collaborate with. When he stumbles upon Chicago Bulls rookie player Michael Jordan, Sonny knows that his only shot for success with the brand is to snag a deal with Jordan before anyone else does. “I’m willing to bet my career on this guy,” Vacarro says to Knight. “I find you players, and I feel it this time.
Vacarro is going to do everything in his power to convince Knight that Jordan—who, by 1984, has already earned the “Air Jordan” nickname—is going to be the next big thing in sportswear. “We build a shoe line around just him,” he says to his skeptical team. But first, he’ll have to convince Jordan’s parents, Deloris (Viola Davis) and James (Julius Tennon) to give Nike access to their son. And Vacarro isn’t afraid of using some unorthodox methods to get Michael Jordan’s name on the dotted line.
If you’ve been craving a distinctly hokey biopic leftover from 2008, you’re in luck. Air seems to be just that. From the trailer alone, it looks expensive but wholly conventional, as easy to swallow as a couple of teeth that get knocked out on the court.
Air is a nostalgia vehicle, plain and simple. Affleck dons big, reflective sunglasses and bright windbreakers (not to mention a precarious toupee). And, of course, the trailer works itself up to a big needle drop of Sister Christian’s “Night Ranger.” Anyone who has some cognizance of the ’80s will get plenty of thrills and chills the second Damon turns to the camera and says Jordan’s name, immediately followed by Sister Christian’s iconic lyrical calling card, “You’re motoring!”
But nostalgia isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s fun to see Damon and Affleck back together, even if it’s for the zillionth time. It’s also a joy to see Julius Tennon opposite his real-life wife Viola Davis on screen once again.
The only question is: Where is the star player himself? Jordan has no affiliation with the film, and it feels disconcerting to see Air centering the rich, white executives who made a fortune off of Michael Jordan’s name and likeness, as if history is repeating itself once again 40 years later for the film version.
Air has already come under fire on Twitter for propping up its white characters, instead of the Black superstar athlete who made Nike synonymous with the sport of basketball. Sure, Jordan has mostly untied his acting shoes since Space Jam. But for a movie funded by Amazon Studios, which is willing to spend millions of dollars on one piece of ad space, you’d think money would be no object, when it comes to at least getting Jordan involved with the film’s production.
Still, Amazon Studios is hedging its bets, planning an exclusive theatrical release window for Air before it hits the studio’s Prime Video streaming service at an undisclosed date. The only thing left to see is if the movie about Air Jordans can have people lined up around the block like the shoe itself.
