The Empire Nikes Back

Nike's new World Cup advert makes its TV debut during tomorrow night's Champions League final, and its as big and beautiful as all Nike's expensive flagship adverts tend to be. They hired a real proper Director - Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose Biutiful has been a divisive entrant at Cannes this week and whose last two films I loathed - and as such, this spot is vibrant and energetic and cinematic. Iñárritu, for all the trite pomposity of his work, is technically adept and capable of real style, and both those qualities are showcased here. He is also Mexican, and he seems to get football, a Mexican national obsession, and understand some of the beauty of a man dribbling past an opponent, at least.
The Wayne Rooney passage is hilarious, too.