Air

With Air, Ben Affleck directs his fifth film and reunites with frequent collaborator and best friend Matt Damon in the story about how Nike came to work with a young Michael Jordan to help him start his basketball career and create the Air Jordans. Damon portrays Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike talent scout who learns about Jordan and must convince the CEO, played by Affleck, and everyone else, why the gamble of this little known player would help the company despite its low sales. The screenplay from newcomer Alex Convery is excellent, giving us well defined characters, writing with lots of great wit and drama, fresh dialogue that isn't too stereotypical for the biographical genre, and managing to be inspiring even if part of the story is about a corporation. While I've only seen two of his other directorial efforts, Affleck proves why being behind the camera is just as great for him as he is in front of it. He masters this story thanks to the rest of the cast, as he, Damon, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, and especially Viola Davis as Jordan's mother stealing the whole movie. Every single member of the cast pull off incredible performances, proving why actors make for incredible actors. If there's one aspect to this movie that doesn't work is when Michael and his family visit Nike to hear what they're offering and Affleck does anything he can to not show his face. It works at first but the more it goes on, the more ridiculous you can tell the staging and blocking really don't work, but it makes it really funny that they did. Air may not have intended to have been released to theaters and instead go straight to Amazon Prime, but I'm glad they made that decision. Over all: 100%

2023 top list so far:

1. Air

2. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

3. Creed III

4. John Wick: Chapter 4

5. Scream VI

6. M3GAN

7. Cocaine Bear

8. Knock at the Cabin

9. The Super Mario Bros. Movie

10. Renfield

11. Shazam! Fury of the Gods

12. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania