Air (2023)

Direction: Ben Affleck
Country: USA 

Air marks the return of Ben Affleck as director, seven years after the disappointing Live by Night. Although he also stars here as Phil Knight, the billionaire CEO of Nike Inc., the central figure of this decent-enough sports biographical drama is played by Matt Damon. He is Sonny Vaccaro, a basketball scout and marketing executive who will trigger a unique historical shoe deal by approaching the young star Michael Jordan to sign with Nike - against his favorite Adidas. It’s the famous Air Jordan shoes we’re talking about here. The year is 1984, and the film brings plenty of nostalgia through music and some transient sequence of images.

Even so, you don’t have to be interested in basketball or Jordan, who doesn’t speak throughout the whole film, since the story is told with enough conviction and transparency to connect with people who are not into the NBA. Because more concerned with the characters and their personal goals than with the sport itself, everyone should be able to enjoy it. 

The film’s main strength is precisely that it's a great story. It’s also well acted by a cast that includes Viola Davis, Jason Bateman and Chris Messina in strong supporting roles. For his part, Affleck keeps the narrative moving at a nice pace. 

Narrative-wise, though, Air doesn't have an original bone in its body - the film falls into typical American standards of emotional tension - but, being entertaining and informative, it succeeds at bringing an usually forgotten part of sports history into the minds of today's audiences.

Stillwater (2021)

Direction: Tom McCarthy
Country: USA

Tom McCarthy, the director of the acclaimed Spotlight (2015) and The Visitor (2007), returns with Stillwater, a fairly watchable drama with hints of thriller, featuring Matt Damon in the leading role.

An oil rigger from Oklahoma (Damon) takes an investigative journey to Marseille where his college-aged daughter (Abigail Breslin) is doing time for a crime she says she didn't commit. While trying to locate the presumed suspect in a dangerous neighborhood of the city, this single dad acquires a new family, forging relationships of trust with a theater actress (Camille Cottin) and her little girl (Lilou Siauvaud). But with his mission in mind and some little dirty secrets, will he be able to keep that connection strong? 

Although carrying ambiguity at the heart of the story, the narrative is very direct and simple. This may not be a fast-paced tale, but it actually benefits from that, purring evenly in a quiet, depressive manner. The plot, which McCarthy co-wrote with Thomas Bidegain (A Prophet, 2009; Rust and Bone, 2012), Noé Debré (Dheepan, 2015) and Marcus Hinchey (Come Sunday, 2018), has its flaws, but even failing - sometimes in critical moments like the ending - it still provides something palpable, mostly thanks to Damon who embodies his character with inherent cheerlessness. In the end, Stillwater proves “life’s brutal” to be realistic.

Suburbicon (2017)

Directed by George Clooney
Country: USA

George Clooney’s film noir “Suburbicon”, a weird crossing between “Double Indemnity” and a Shakespeare’s tragedy, holds a grip until a certain point but ultimately fails to deliver. The first film directed by Clooney in three years had everything to succeed if it wasn’t for its predictability and tackiness in the vain attempt to throw in serial crime episodes, racial injustice, and social satire in the same bag without mixing them well first. Not even the magic touch of the Coen Brothers, who took care of the script alongside Clooney and Grant Heslov, avoided a muddled tale that was only timidly sparked by the great cast.

The film was loosely based on a factual case occurred in Levittown, Pennsylvania, 1957, when a black family moved to a hostile ‘white’ neighborhood. Its central character is an unscrupulous man, Gardner Lodge (Matt Damon), who schemes to kill his wheelchair-bound wife, having her insidious twin sister, Maggie (Julianne Moore), as an accomplice and future partner. The main motive behind such a repulsive plan is to get a large sum of money from the accidental death insurance. Trouble arrives when the two hired thugs that perpetrated the crime start to feel threatened by Gardner's young son, Nicky (Noah Jupe), who could easily identify. The latter, who has no clue why his father is covering them up, is ultimately rescued by uncle Mitch (Gary Basaraba), the one who loves him like his own child, after being enlisted in a military academy.

In parallel, we follow the hardships of Mrs. Mayers (Karimah Westbrook), an African American woman who moved to Suburbicon with her family in hopes of a decent life. Sadly, she only found intolerance coming from the cruel white inhabitants who don’t waste a chance to humiliate her. This description might rouse some curiosity, but, incredible as it may seem, this segment of the film was even feebler than the murder case, which, at least, and with the help of a greedy insurance agent (Oscar Isaac), slightly stirs some tension. Failing to deliver that dark humor that everybody was expecting, Clooney and his associates were also unable to integrate the two stories in the film. It's excused to say that none of them worked well individually either. 

Having the right performers for each role and created the right looks to fill the background, Clooney nothing could have done in terms of direction or tone to ameliorate the written material, which had already been born defective. Hence, the outcome, not putting him into a shame in terms of filmmaking, is utterly unsatisfactory in terms of the message as well as highly inconsistent in the art of entertaining.