Movie review

Matt & Ben (and Viola) make early case as Oscar MVPs for 'Air'

In many ways, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have defined the last 30 years of movies. Rising with a bunch of other young actors in the early ‘90s, they shot their shot with 1997’s Good Will Hunting, walking away with an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in the process. Both have remained at the top of the industry ever since, being part of big franchises and grabbing multiple other Oscar nominations/wins.

They’re back together in a somewhat unlikely way in Air, about the courting of soon-to-be basketball superstar Michael Jordan by Nike to endorse their shoes. Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, who worked as a talent scout for Nike in the early 1980s. The then-nascent basketball division of the company had difficulty competing with the likes of Adidas and Converse to get players to wear their shoes, and they were looking to find the next attainable star from the now-legendary 1984 NBA Draft.

Convinced Jordan is worth more than any other player – or any other three players – Vaccaro pleads his case to Nike VP Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) and CEO Phil Knight (Affleck), along with Jordan’s agent David Falk (Chris Messina).

But ultimately, the person who will make or break the deal is Jordan’s mother Deloris (Viola Davis), a woman who’s not only protective of her son as a person, but of his potential legacy in the years to come.

Directed by Affleck and written by first-time screenwriter Alex Convery, the film is a light and fun look at a bit of sports history where the actual sport is rarely glimpsed. Anyone who’s had even a passing interest in the NBA in the past 40 years knows what an impact Jordan has had on the sport and shoe industry surrounding it. But somehow the film is able to make a story with a pre-ordained outcome into a compelling one, thanks to behind-the-scenes drama that they execute well.

Vaccaro and Knight are well-known names for sports fans, but they’re not in the public eye so much that people know what their personalities are. Damon and Affleck use this to their advantage, creating characters that perhaps hue closer to their real-life friendship than the men they’re portraying. The same sense of enjoyment pervades all of the inter-company relationships shown at Nike, so that even as the characters are stressing about their futures, the film never gets bogged down in unnecessary torment.

The focus on Deloris, not Michael, Jordan is also a smart choice. Not only does it allow the filmmakers to avoid the pitfall of casting the wrong person to portray one of the most famous men on Earth, but it brings in a level of emotionality that the film might not have had otherwise. Michael is still present, but they cleverly stage the scenes with the Jordan family so that Deloris is always the one in charge.

Speaking of casting, every role is filled almost perfectly. Damon and Affleck lead the way, naturally, and each is clearly having a ball. Bateman, with his deadpan demeanor, is a great foil for Damon, and their scenes together are a joy to watch. Davis, robbed of an Oscar nomination for The Woman King, could easily be nominated here, as she bonds the two sides of the story together. Supporting performances by Messina, Chris Tucker, Matthew Moher, Julius Tennon, and Marlon Wayans all serve to make the film better.

Air could have been a wonky deep-dive into sports statistics and business machinations, but Affleck and his team concentrate instead on the people involved in the deals, which is exactly what the story needed. It’s only April, but don’t be surprised if this film is a top contender during the 2023 awards season.

---

Air is currently running in theaters.

Photo courtesy of Prime Video

Matt Damon in Air.

movies film

Movie Review

Offbeat drama Pillion features command performance by Alexander Skarsgård

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

---

Pillion is now playing in theaters.

movies film