Ben Affleck celebrates the sole of Michael Jordan at SXSW premiere of 'Air'

South by Southwest Film & TV Festival ended with a lot of heart and sole.

After nine days of big names and bold cinematic visions (and a lesbian fight club), the Austin fest hosted its starriest night Saturday with the world premiere of Ben Affleck's "Air." The Oscar winner directed a stacked cast, including himself, in the Amazon Studios feature about the creation of the iconic Air Jordan sneaker. Affleck, Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker and Julius Tennon walked the red carpet at the Paramount Theatre before introducing SXSW's closing film.

Much like Nike signing a rising hoops genius named Michael Jordan, you could feel that "Air" was a major score for Austin's biggest film fest, and a feather in the cap of new program head Claudette Godfrey in her first year at the helm. Compliments to her on her Jordans and track suit, by the way.

In introducing the film, Affleck dispensed with any pretense and earnestly, excitedly said he wanted the audience to like the movie. His infectious energy filled the room and made for a gleeful viewing experience.

The kinetic, lovely, funny "Air" has the goods, too — even if you might wonder about the virtues of a business biopic in the light of morning. Here's what you need to know about the film, which comes out April 5.

More SXSW movie reviews:Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola give R-rated masterclass in 'Joy Ride'

'Air' is one of the most American stories you'll see at the movies.

Affleck and writer Alex Convery took on a long shot with "Air": How do you take a story about the creation of a shoe, corporate back-and-forth and the most iconic sports figure of all time and turn it into cinema? You ground it in cheer-worthy characters and draft an all-star team.

"Air" finds Nike scout Sonny Vaccaro (Damon) fighting an uphill battle to recruit incoming NBA players worth a damn for the shoe company's scrappy basketball line. Converse and Adidas have Nike outgunned, and the team behind the swoosh — Vaccaro, Rob Strasser (Bateman), Howard White (Tucker) and eccentric CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) — need a win bad.

Vaccaro has an eye for greatness and a propensity to gamble, and he sees the future in a player named Michael Jordan. Jordan costs too much money and he doesn't want anything to do with Nike, according to his agent (Messina). So, Vaccaro bets it all on creating a shoe that might change the world, in hopes of winning the loyalty of a man who's definitely going to change the world. And Nike's best hope to sign Jordan is his winning over his mother, Deloris (Davis).

Deloris is fiercely guarding her own hope: her son's future.

Ben Affleck is at the peak of his powers, both as a director and an onscreen presence.

In his fifth feature outing as a director, Affleck dunks it. "Air" is fleet of foot, charging down the court as the crowd goes wild. (Now that I mention it, there's not a whole lot of basketball in this movie, actually.) Affleck's stated intention, to win over audiences with heart and humor, is fulfilled.

The people love nostalgia, and ain't nothin' wrong with that when you're bringing Air Jordans to the screen. "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits plays over the opening of "Air," as a montage of archival clips blazes through: Ronald Reagan, Mr. T, what have you. The needle drops overflow in this period-steeped story — Cyndi Lauper, Chaka Khan, Big Country, Night Ranger, Squeeze, so many more.

Convery built his script like a bomb shelter; the story beats are airtight, if a little familiar, but perhaps so it goes with a crowd-pleaser. There are real human stakes to Vaccaro's desperation, to Strasser's divorced dad pathos, to Knight's conflict over his company's values. There's also nothing more human than Affleck poured into magenta running tights and airing his dogs out in more than one scene. Sincerely, it shows great instincts as a leader to laugh at yourself, so your team's work can shine.

Speaking of Affleck's feet (and why not), his facility with feel-good filmmaking exacts no cost on his craftsmanship. The camera finds shoes often, under a bathroom stall and stepping out of a car. Throughout "Air," those shoes are either white and sterile or drab, hidebound things — Knight, a shoe mogul, doesn't even bother with them sometimes — which makes the scarlet reveal of history's best-selling sneaker all the more gorgeous.

On the red carpet, Affleck told us about his collaborations with Austin's directing trifecta: the fun of a Richard Linklater shoot, the collaboration of a Robert Rodriguez set, and the feast of lessons taught by Terrence Malick. While you'll never confuse "Air" for "The Tree of Life" — except for some rumination on the roles of mothers and fathers — you can see the evidence of Affleck as a creation of his directing mentors.

The camera focus on a barroom conversation between Vaccaro and George Raveling (Marlon Wayans) dances between the two men like a series of chest passes. The director chooses not to depict the young Jordan from the front or to hear him speak, really, thus preserving the myth . His burgeoning genius speaks for him in the eager nervousness of shoe salesmen, in the fixed gaze of his mother, in a brief mid-movie reel of the highs and lows that will follow in the decade after he signs on the dotted line. That moment is almost expressionist; Ben Affleck arthouse flick when?

The sense of fun and collaboration might be "Air's" greatest mark. To a one, the cast members spoke glowingly of Affleck's direction, and the results show in the print. Just some greats, getting room to show their stuff.

More SXSW movie reviews:‘Evil Dead Rise’ is the mother of all horror movies

If only 'Air' jumped in the other direction ...

Damon's the protagonist of "Air," but Davis more than anyone benefits from her open runway. As always, she carves out room for a massive presence with great efficiency. Deloris' scenes are not prolific, and Affleck said he added more after Michael Jordan specifically requested that the star of "The Woman King" play his mother.

The hazard of putting an actor like Davis in your movie, then, is that her greatness can make a viewer start holding the rest of the picture up to the light for a closer look. It's not easy to spoil a real sequence of events, but Deloris' championship of her son's promise and worth gives "Air" its most crucial point of view.

Once that is allowed to shine fully — and the film does gloriously unfurl Deloris' impact, making "Air" so much more complex — it disrobes the narrative the rest of the film sold. "Sold" is the perfect word, because as modern workers each day wake up more and more to the greed and predation of American corporate capitalism, the ick of rooting for executives to close a big-budget merchandise deal creeps in.

Would it feel different if the movie valorized the creative design process behind the shoe instead of the people negotiating over contracts? Worth a thought. To his credit, Affleck said in the post-screening Q&A that he didn't work with Nike on the creative direction to avoid making propaganda.

Somewhere in the multiverse, there's an "Air" that even more fully centers Deloris' excellence in securing the genius of her son. Maybe we could go full "Rashomon" and do "Air, Volume 2."

You can hold only so much immortality in human hands, though, and "Air" bottles a satisfying flicker of eternity. No matter how a movie tells his story, Michael Jordan is flying forever, his skyward silhouette preserved in leather.

Grade: B

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Review of Ben Affleck's Air movie at SXSW premiere with Viola Davis