© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosWe all know the ingredients of a good heist movie.
The hero or anti hero has what appears to be an impossible dream.
He or she assembles the perfect team to execute that idea.
Often some of the crew have to be convinced to jump out of their comfort zones and take the risk.
© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosPooling all their talent and expertise, the crew devises a smart plan to make millions and they set a date for executing it.
Sometimes in the build up or on the big day, there are last minute wobbles that threaten to derail everything.
And while the heist sometimes ends in failure, in some films they succeed.
Ben Affleck's 112 minute film 'Air' isn't officially a heist movie.
It's about how Nike, against all odds, pulled off one of the most lucrative celebrity partnerships in the history of sport.
© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosAnd yet, 'Air' somehow tells the story as if it were a heist film.
The man with the plan is Matt Damon's Sonny Vaccaro - a sports marketing executive tasked with building relationships with up and coming high school and college basketball talent.
The problem is he works for Nike whose brand is just not cool enough for up and coming basketball stars.
Nike is associated with athletics and the jogging craze.
It's not taken seriously as a basketball brand but it would still like a piece of that action.
© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosWith Magic Johnson, Julius Erving and Larry Bird all on the roster of NBA stars endorsing its shoes, Converse is the clear market leader.
However Germany's Adidas is also eager to muscle in, buoyed by the endorsement of its tracksuits and it's trainers by rap artists like Run DMC.
As Nike executives gather to discuss the college draft picks to the NBA, Sonny is dispirited by the lack of ambition and passion for the sport among his colleagues.
With a budget of $250,000, Nike traditionally makes offers to three up and coming stars in the hope that one of them will come good and lay a golden egg.
© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosConverse, though, usually tends to have the pick of the best prospects, with Adidas looking this time like its biggest competition.
If that isn't bad enough, Sonny, Ben Affleck's Nike CEO Phil Knight, Jason Bateman's marketing vice president Rob Strasser and Chris Tucker's head of player relations Howard White are also operating under a threat by their board to wind down the basketball division.
They need a win and they need it fast.
And to achieve that, Sonny knows something has to radically change.
Nike can't keep repeating the mistakes of the past or jobs will be lost.
© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosReviewing videotapes of the draft picks, Sonny is suddenly struck by the way rising star Michael Jordan was deployed as a rookie by coach Dean Smith to secure the winning points for the University of North Carolina in its 1982 NCAA Championship final victory over Georgetown.
More significantly, he is struck by what the winning play by North Carolina says about Jordan and his future career.
So rather than doing what they always do and spreading their player marketing budget over three rising stars, Sonny, a gambler by nature, argues Nike should go all in and bet the entire sum on landing Jordan.
It is a high stakes move that could backfire on Sonny and with Converse and Adidas courting Jordan, his colleagues are deeply sceptical.
© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosHowever he finds a way to make them believe in the plan by getting around Chris Messina's aggressive and arrogant sports agent, David Falk who is very frank about Michael Jordan not even considering a meeting with Nike worthwhile.
And as the prospect of landing Jordan becomes feasible, Sonny draws in the creative talent of Matthew Maher's Peter Moore to design a shoe that will revolutionise sports marketing.
There's a danger making a film like 'Air' that you end up following very predictable beats.
Not only does the audience know the outcome of Nike's efforts to woo one of the greatest stars to grace a basketball court, it could also easily fall into the mould of every other movie about the business of sport.
© Warner Bros & Amazon Studios'Air' avoids that, though, by celebrating Vacarro's disruption of norms in Nike and the sportswear industry.
It does this while enthusiastically embracing its 1984 setting and pitching its plot like a heist movie in which the underdog manages to swipe a coveted star from the under noses of its biggest rivals.
Having used his cunning to persuade colleagues what they thought was once impossible is now possible, Sonny and his crew start to think differently about how they can land their big fish.
There are, of course, wobbles along the way but they pull off their risky but gamechanging venture through guile, passion, ingenuity and sheer charm.
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© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosLike all heist movies, 'Air' needs slick direction, a tight script and a winning cast to succeed.
Affleck's film scores on all the three fronts.
Affleck and his screenwriter Alex Convery do this by taking a 'Moneyball' approach.
Not only does 'Air' revel in Nike's underdog status like that movie but it avoids the risk of winding up with flat sequences of people ranting in offices and boardrooms, beating their chests or talking to each other on phones.
Like 'Moneyball,' the subject matter necessitates such scenes but they break them up too with glimpses of Sonny's life away from the office and sequences of him on the road.
© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosThe difference between it and 'Moneyball,' though, is its deployment of heist movie rhythms.
Like any good heist film, there are covert, conspiratorial meetings in a darkened sports bar with Marlon Wayans' US Olympic coach George Raveling and in the home of Viola Davis' Deloris Jordan in Wilmington, North Carolina.
These aren't the only tricks deployed to break the monotony.
Affleck and his editor William Goldenberg cleverly use archive footage at the start of the film to set the context of the film and then later on, to prophetically map out Jordan's career arc during an impassioned boardroom speech by Sonny.
© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosNone of this succeeds, though, without a typically smart, witty and charismatic performance by Matt Damon at its core.
His performance as Sonny has a Jeff Bridges, Robert Redford or Paul Newman style charm.
But it is also generous and lacking in vanity, with the actor appearing to carry a few pounds.
Damon knows 'Air' is very much an ensemble piece and he is very comfortable to sit back at times and watch Affleck, Tucker, Bateman, Maher, Messina, Wayans and Davis seizing their moment to shine.
© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosInevitably, some performances are more eye catching than others with Bateman, Messina, Maher and Davis, in particular, thriving on sheer energy or guile.
With a soundtrack that needle drops Dire Straits and Sting's 'Money for Nothing' Squeeze's 'Tempted,' Big Country's 'In A Big Country,' Chaka Khan's 'Ain't Nobody,' Cyndi Lauper's 'Time After Time' and Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The USA,' you've also got a perfect film for those who like their 1980s nostalgia.
'Air' has the feel of a Steven Soderbergh film which is an indication of just how good a job Affleck does as director.
Damon's long time collaborator knows a great story when he sees it.
© Warner Bros & Amazon StudiosBut he also shows how a smart director knows how to trust his or her screenwriter, knows the value of a top class crew that includes cinematographer Robert Richardson and knows how to get the most out of a rock solid cast.
'Air' is one of those films that may or may not sneak onto critics' top ten lists at the end of the year.
But regardless of whether it does or not, this Warner Bros and Amazon Studios co-production is a hugely entertaining throwback to an era when stories and not just special effects mattered.
Affleck's film has performed pretty decently at the box office which shows there's an appetite for stories that don't hinge on cheap, violent thrills.
Studio chiefs, take note.
('Air' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on April 5, 2023)
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