Hammerle on… “Air” and “Renfield”

“Air”

While I have to swallow my pride, I never thought I would ever recommend that you see a film directed by Ben Affleck, much less starring him in a supporting role. But this is a great film on multiple levels, so do yourself a favor and hunt it down.

It plays like a documentary. It is 1984 and Michael Jordan is about to join the NBA. You watch Nike compete with Converse and Adidas to land a contract with him to produce tennis shoes with his name. Nike won — does the name “Air Jordan” sound familiar?

The film centers on Nike employee Sonny Vaccaro as he attempts to persuade Jordan and his mother, Deloris, to sign with Nike. Matt Damon is sensational in his role as Sonny. There are multiple powerful scenes as he persuades Phil Knight (Affleck), his boss, to use every dime of Nike’s treasury ($250,000) to convince Jordan to sign.

On top of that, Viola Davis is wonderful playing Deloris. She is as smart as the proverbial whip playing a mom who knows what is financially best for her son. It resulted in Michael making $400,000 a year in shoe sales to this very day.

But what makes this film so much fun are the performances of Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker and Chris Messina. Bateman and Tucker are Nike executives who are both amusing and effective in helping Damon’s Vaccaro smooth over rough edges.

But it is Messina’s David Falk, Jordan’s agent, who steals the movie. The entire audience laughed out loud whenever Messina was on screen, particularly during his hysterically profane telephone tirade. His performance is Oscar-worthy.

And speaking of the Oscars, redemption can be found in recognizing Davis’ performance. She was overlooked last year despite her brilliant leading role in “The Woman King,” and the Oscars have a chance to overcome their racial guilt by nominating her for helping to make “Air” a magical real-life documentary.

“Renfield”

While “Renfield” is not a particularly bad vampire film, it certainly is not a great one. Violent and campy, it is saved only by the creative performances of Nicholas Hoult as Renfield and Awkwafina as a struggling police officer.

Flowing from the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker and the original film released in 1931, Nicolas Cage plays the toothy Dracula. Now living in New Orleans, he depends on his loyal assistant, Renfield, to provide humans to satisfy his master’s blood thirst.

The fun part of the movie flows from Renfield’s participation in a self-help group to find a way to flee Dracula. He no longer finds gaining superhuman strength from eating bugs to be life’s calling. As noted, Hoult is good in this role, so I encourage you to watch “Warm Bodies” (2013), “Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and “Tolkien” (2019).

However, his journey takes a bad turn when he runs into a crime family. Led by Teddy Lobo (Ben Schwartz) and his mother, Bellafrancesca (Shohreh Aghdashloo), Renfield cooperates with the police to try and destroy them.

The battle that ensues describes the rest of the film. Dracula hates his counseling group and Renfield can only find safety with the support of Rebecca, Awkwafina’s frustrated, engaging police officer. She helps this move rise from the dead (literally), so hunt her down in “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018) and “The Farewell” (2019).

As far as an interesting Dracula film, leave this movie alone for the moment and watch Hugh Jackman in “Van Helsing” (2004). Kate Beckinsale’s Anna Valerious helps Van Helsing destroy Dracula by revealing his alliance with Frankenstein.

Enjoy!•

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Robert Hammerle practices criminal law in Indianapolis. When he is not in the courtroom or the office, Bob can likely be found at one of his favorite movie theaters preparing to review the latest films. To read more of his reviews, visit www.bigmouthbobs.com. Opinions expressed are those of the author.