Sports dramas are easy crowd-pleasers that often fall victim to familiar and limited sports dramas. Business dramas are often far more complex films that can feel inaccessible to casual audiences. But director Ben Affleck has somehow effortlessly fused both genres together with 2023’s AIR, which was one of our most anticipated films of the year and chronicles Nike’s Hail Mary play to sign Michael Jordan to the company to create the most iconic and profitable shoe ever.

The movie takes place in 1984 and shows us that the powerhouse we know as Nike may be a billion-dollar company, but their basketball division is a joke. They rank third in terms of representation in the NBA, with a tiny 19% of the player base. The division has been given a budget of $250,000 to spend on three or four players to market their line. But Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) ends up with a wild, ambitious and even reckless idea: use the entire budget on one player, the up-and-coming Michael Jordan, who has already dismissed Nike with eyes on signing with Adidas. What follows is the pursuit to try and persuade the Jordan family to go with the third-rate option.

All the acting is solid in the movie, from Damon to Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck as Nike CEO Phil Knight. But no surprise, the standout here is Viola Davis as Delilah Jordan. She gives a great turn, giving us a look at a mother who is both deeply committed to her son as well as his biggest fan. She knows, deep in her soul that her son will become a great player. Another standout in the movie is Chris Tucker as Howard White, the fast-talking VP of Nike’s basketball division. He offers most of the humour in the movie, which, in turn, turned out to be a surprisingly funny movie written by newcomer Alex Convery (this is his only credit on IMDb), who co-produced the movie.

But the real star of the show was Affleck’s directional prowess. After stumbling with Live By Night, he returns to form with AIR. He’s in command of both the cast and the camera, presenting confident actors while also having the camera float through the offices of Nike. He keeps the pace breezy; as mentioned this is a fast-paced sports bio but laced inside a business drama. The soundtrack is also killer, immersing us in 1984 throughout the almost two-hour runtime.

We get some insights into the personal lives of these characters, chiefly Bateman’s Rob Strasser, but this movie largely keeps it locked on Sonny’s campaign to sign M.J. This does leave us maybe wanting a bit more out of the cast, who are they outside the offices of Nike, do they have families? Sonny chastises Michael’s agent David Falk (Chris Messina) for not having any friends or family, but I’m not sure Sonny does either to be honest, based on this movie.

But that’s a minor gripe, as Affleck and Convery clearly wanted the movie locked in on Sonny’s vision and in that regard, the movie succeeds for being so focused. Does it feel like a two-hour ad for Jordans? Sometimes, it’s true, but it didn’t get in the way of the craft. It’s a funny, well-acted underdog drama and who doesn’t like one of those? A great watch, go see it on Prime Video now.