Disclaimer: This movie review is a loose transcription from our podcast where we do all our movie reviews – link is at the bottom of this page to listen in!
Nayan:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this review – James and I have just come out of Air – based on the Air Jordan shoe. So James, let’s jump straight into it. What’d you think of it?
James:
Well, man, you know me, I’m a big basketball fan. I know the Michael Jordan story and yeah, this movie captures a piece of the story in terms of him signing a shoe contract with Nike. The story is quite fascinating in terms of what it did for Nike the brand and you know, obviously the icon of Michael Jordan – all that stuff. I thought before coming into this and all the reviews came out because it’s been highly praised right now, but I always found that with this movie, it’d be hard to be able to capture that story in terms of the stakes and what the icon of Michael Jordan really means. I think that’s one of the things in this movie that I think it does very, very well. It shows the importance and it shows the urgency to actually be able to sign Michael Jordan and, you know, they managed to put some stakes into all of the characters. Overall, I thought it was really well done. I think the dialogue is really good. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it’s just a very 80s kind of dialogue; I think it really does that well. I think just making this into a story and you know, putting things about legacy, being bold, taking risks, having belief and faith in the story, all those background subtextual kind of ideas being in it, it does it well. The set design might be one of my favourite aspects of it as it really did feel like the 80s, especially with the costuming and things. Yeah, it’s got a very interesting kind of costuming to it. It’s not your typical 80s costuming as it has a Nike head office kind of style feel to it. Once you see it, you’ll know what I’m talking about there. The casting I think was actually really great. I was worried about Ben Affleck. Casting himself, but he really worked as Nike CEO. You know, Matt Damon plays Sonny, a recruiter. Yeah, he’s really good. Jason Bateman was great. Viola Davis is probably my favourite casting choice performing with such sincerity as Jordan’s mother Deloris. So yeah, just all of that stuff done. The soundtrack is great but I will say that it’s quite generic with its use of very popular songs but it’s become quite a trope in movies these days. It’s hard to really keep expanding beyond the classics and whatnot. Overall, a difficult story to tell in the format of a film, but done probably to the best of its ability. It doesn’t need to be retold in any other way. Yeah. What did you think?
Nayam
I am pretty much on board with what you said. I can’t sum it up better than you did, because you pretty much nailed it. I really like Matt Damon in this. I feel that his character was pretty similar to his character in Ford V Ferrari. You know, like the guy wants to take a risk on the underdog and whatnot. I don’t know if you noticed this when I did but the little blue Ford Shelby like on top of his little computer. How about that little blue Ford Shelby from Ford V Ferrari. Ben Affleck does a great job in this. I think he just managed to bring every element of filmmaking together. Yeah. Probably translates as to why it’s currently at 100% 15 reviews. Hopefully, it stays high. I hope that this film stays at the high end, and gets nominated for some awards.
James:
It would be interesting if this would actually get nominated. I feel like it might be in the conversation, but it all depends on sort of what comes out later on.
Nayan:
Definitely in the screenplay category. It should definitely have something there.
James:
The dialogue is done really well by just putting such heart into a movie in a plot where you feel it would struggle to have, you know, emotional attachments to it and moments that tug on heartstrings. There are quite powerful moments and it comes through monologues, and one, in particular, is Matt Damon’s one to Michael Jordan.
Nayan:
What is your score – what would you give it out of 10?
James:
Obviously, with a personal score, you have your biases and that’s the thing and I’m a basketball lover. I’m an NBA fan. A Michael Jordan fan, because he is the GOAT, not LeBron. Sorry, had to put in that dig.
Nayan:
I think we just found our caption.
James
Yeah, so out of ten. I’m gonna give this an 8.2 out of 10.
Nayan:
That’s exactly what I was thinking! Yeah, I gave it 8.2 as well. Wow. Yeah, it’s well deserved.
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