Review:
"Air"
Release Date: April 5, 2023
Rating: R Running Time: 112 minutes What stood out the most from this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival was its commitment to the corporate underdog biography. Maybe that’s a reflection of how SXSW sees itself after two crippling pandemic years that resulted in its sale to Penske Media and a return to glory with 2022’s first in-person festival since 2019 thanks to, among other films, its opening night selection Everything Everywhere All at Once. But that’s a discussion for another day. This year, Eva Longoria returned to her native Texas with her Hulu-bound directorial debut Flamin' Hot, which takes it cue from Frito Lay janitor and machine operator Richard Montañez’s claims to have invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, a rags-to-riches feel-good story fueled by Mexican-American pride that the snack food company naturally disputes. Tech bros ate up BlackBerry, director Matt Johnson’s anxiety-inducing account of the rise and fall of the line of mobile phones that both celebrates Canadian ingenuity and bemoans the nation’s perpetual also-ran status to the United States. You have to wait until the summer for BlackBerry and Flamin' Hot but not for Air and Tetris. Air, Ben Affleck’s love letter to Michael Jordan and his Nike line of basketball shoes, is now in theaters after closing this year’s SXSW in grand fashion thanks to the attendance of Affleck and cast members Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, Chris Chris Messina, and Austin native Julius Tennon and his wife, the incomparable Viola Davis. Tetris, which chronicles how the attempts to export the eponymous videogame from Russia to the rest of world, is now available to stream on Apple TV+ after a brief theatrical run. Both Air and Tetris succeed mightily in crafting compelling stories that celebrate the maverick businessman willing to stake his career turning an seemingly impossible idea into reality. In Air, a calmly steadfast Matt Damon portrays Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike executive responsible for the 1984 surprise signing of then-Chicago Bulls rookie Michael Jordan to a line of shoes that transformed Nike into a global powerhouse brand and helped the greatest basketball player of all time become a billionaire. At the time, Nike was mostly identified with its running shoes and could only afford to sign lower-tier NBA players as pitchmen. Directed with a typically assured hand by Ben Affleck, Air follows Vaccaro as he jumps one hurdle after another—often thrown in his way by his penny-pinching, risk-adverse boss Phil Knight—to get the sit-down he needs to persuade Jordan to sign with Nike. In Tetris, the stakes are much higher than an increase in the share of the sports apparel market. Taron Egerton brings unwavering conviction and feverish resourcefulness to his vigorous portrayal of Henk Rogers, a failed Dutch-American videogame developer who in 1988 lucks into buying the Japanese PC, console, and arcade rights for Tetris, the videogame created four years earlier by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov (Paget-off). But when questions arise who owns certain Tetris rights, Rogers travels to the Soviet Union to persuade a hostile government state agency to sell him additional rights. Not only does Rogers have to contend with business rivals, most noticeably media baron Robert Maxwell’s videogame publisher Mirrorsoft, but also the KGB. And Rogers’ continued presence in the Soviet Union places Pajitnov’s (Paget-off) life in jeopardy. Both Air and Tetris are very much a reflection of the time and place they are set in the 1980s, which offers an absorbing study in contrasts of American business ingenuity. Written by Alex Convery, the performance-driven Air unfolds as a conventionally told and executed underdog story that intentionally or otherwise feeds into and endorses Reagan-era go-go economics. Affleck even employs some of the biggest songs of the 1980s for the narrative purpose of commenting on or foreshadowing the proceedings. Affleck and Convery also don’t shy away from the corporate politics that interfere with Sonny Vaccaro’s bid to sign Michael Jordan, but the obvious inside baseball approach to Air does not distract from Vaccaro’s task at hand. And by casting himself as Nike founder and Zen master Phil Knight, Affleck ensures that Nike is not presented as just another soulless American corporate entity out to create the next big thing to turn its flagging fortunes around. Yes, the Phil Knight in Air is presented as resistance to any outside the box thinking and serves as a symbol of Nike’s inferiority complex. This not only make Knight more human than just another greedy captain of industry but helps create a rooting interest in Nike overcoming the odds against it rivals both domestic and international. It also adds the necessary element of friction to the seemingly friendly arguments between Vaccaro and Knight about the pursuit of Michael Jordan. Conversely, director Jon S. Baird and screenwriter Noah Pink structure Tetris as a chilling Cold War-era thriller that raises the stakes with every adversarial encounter Henk Rogers experiences in the Soviet Union. But the paranoia Rogers justifiably starts to feel in an unknown and unfriendly environment is offset by his commitment to his cause. In Tetris, Rogers is a true believer in the videogame as much as Vaccaro is in Jordan. And, no matter what, Rogers is not going to let threats to his life send him packing. This disregard for his own personal safety only makes Rogers more likeable and appealing. At the same time, Rogers remains concerned with the fate of the videogame’s creator Alexey Pajitnov (Paget-off) and his family, and his obligation to them personally and financially both during and after negotiations with the Soviet Union makes him even more of an admirable underdog to root for. The result is an unlikely friendship between two men living under very different circumstances. Director Jon S. Baird and screenwriter Noah Pink also find much fun in this David’s attempt to outmaneuver the many Goliath he faces, especially when it involves the oily Robert Maxwell and his son Kevin Maxwell. Tetris is certainly more intrigued by the backdoor shenanigans that work against Rogers than what Vaccaro faces in Air. Mostly because Vaccaro is very much an insider of the world he inhabits—he’s a highly respected in basketball circle—and is the one operating outside the system. Rogers is unknown to all but his major rival is a household name who seemingly possesses great power and influence. Also, Tetris takes a different approach to its quarry than Air. Tetris offers a deep dive into the life and career of the videogame’s creator Alexey Pajitnov (Paget-off), which affords director Jon S. Baird and screenwriter Noah Pink the opportunity to examine the harsh conditions everyday citizens existed under the rule of law and corruption in the Soviet Union. Pajitnov (Paget-off) is never treated as a commodity in the same way that Air inevitably positions Jordan. Which generates significant concern for Pajitnov (Paget-off) if Rogers’ negotiations goes sideways. In Air, Ben Affleck never shows us Michael Jordan’s face. He only shoot him from behind. Most of Vaccaro’s interactions with Jordan is through his business-minded and protective mother Deloris Jordan, who is played with grit and determination by Viola Davis. Deloris Jordan knows the true value of her son’s talents and abilities, and she’s going to get him the best deal even if goes against standard industry practices. By making Jordan more of a presence in Air, Affleck positions already him as the sport icon we know he will become, one who not only would go on to win six NBA championships but sell billions of dollars’ worth of Air Jordan shoes each and every year. Affleck knows treating Jordan as a mere mortal in Air would only undercut the story he is telling. Ultimately, Air is about the process of turning an extraordinary talent into commodity while Tetris is more concerned about the otherwise anonymous men behind an addictive videogame. But both are unlikely 1980s successful stories, one familiar, one less so. And both relay the same message when it comes to turning your business dreams into a reality: just do it. Robert Sims Aired: April 4, 2023. Web sites: https://www.amazon.com/ |
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