Want To Fly

Air is another masterclass from director/writer Ben Affleck - a thin, hackneyed story, but written, edited, and acted at the highest level. The subject is how back in the '80s, Nike got Michael Jordan's endorsement for a new basketball shoe, but the real story is how we need heroes in our lives.

The movie's great trick is that Jordan is barely shown as a character, a trick that maybe only works for people of an age that know or saw his amazing game-play.   That trick comes to a climax in the boardroom seal-the-deal scene where we get a miraculous monologue from Matt Damon's character, a paean to the greatness of star athletes but also a caution on their inevitable fall from public grace. It's a brilliant balance to the purely elegiac Field of Dreams monologue, and better for it.

Must also add, if it even needs to be repeated, that Viola Davis is superb as always.