Remember when all of you people were like "Ben Affleck sucks," and I was like "No he doesn't, he's just chosen some really bad roles." Then, you were all like "Whatever, dude, Ben Affleck is a joke, stop trying to convince me otherwise," and I was like "Shutup, dude. Your mom's a joke..."
I bet you all are feeling pretty silly right about now.
Argo is Affleck's third directorial effort after Gone Baby Gone and The Town. So far, he has amassed a record that the vast majority of filmmakers in Hollywood would kill for. And, along the way, he's become one of Hollywood's go-to directors for high-quality movies aimed at adults. I think it's safe to say that he'll be longer remembered for his skills as a director than as an actor. Indeed, on all counts, I'd say he has a great chance to be his generation's Clint Eastwood.
This movie begins by recounting the fall of the Shah in Iran and the U.S. involvement in giving the deposed dictator aid and shelter. In retaliation, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Iran, taking more than 50 hostages. The lesser-known part of this chapter of history is that six embassy workers escaped and took refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador.
The White House and the State Department are at a loss in their efforts to come up with a plan to extract the escapees. They bring in CIA specialist Tony Mendez (played by Affleck) as a consultant, yet all he can do is mock and criticize their various contingency plans. Eventually, while watching a B-movie on TV, he comes up with a plan to disguise the embassy workers as a film crew scouting locations in Iran.
Mendez solicits the help of a makeup artist named John Chambers (played by John Goodman) and a movie producer named Lester Siegel (played by Alan Arkin). It's not enough to simply give the embassy workers disguises, the film has to appear legitimate in order to fool immigration and cultural officials in Iran. So, Mendez, Chambers, and Siegel set up a fake movie studio and drum up real publicity for their fake film, a sci-fi fantasy titled Argo.
With the credibility of the film established, Mendez travels to Iran and links up with the hostages. What plays out thereafter is a taut, if not all that groundbreaking, suspense story. Mendez takes them through the steps of establishing their cover, including appearances in public and a confrontation with an angry mob, along the way to an escape that was, until the 1990s, officially credited to the Canadian government.
True enough, there's nothing wholly innovative about the story. The story itself is very conventional and by-the-numbers. In fact, the most compelling aspect of the story is that it's true. If it was just made up, it wouldn't seem to be all that unique.
The success is in the execution. The script -- penned by Chris Terrio -- doesn't have an ounce of fat on it. Every scene, every character, and every line of dialogue is important to the story. The pacing is utterly flawless as the movie churns along as though it is being timed by a stopwatch. It is, like Affleck's other movies -- particularly The Town -- a remarkable display of filmmaking prowess and efficiency, yet another reason I compared him to Clint Eastwood.
The acting is also first-rate. It's one of Affleck's best performances to date and both Arkin and Goodman are outstanding in the film. And, of course, Bryan Cranston shows up in what seems like the millionth movie in the last year, yet he feels underused in his role as Mendez's boss.
Argo is a film that is destined for multiple Academy Award nominations. Most of them, including the certain Best Director nom for Affleck, will be well-deserved. While noms for the actors are less likely, I think it'd be great to see John Goodman's name make it to the short list for an Supporting Actor Oscar.
Hollywood needs more films like this. Adults and fans of serious cinema are a forgotten demographic at the movies these days. After this movie, Affleck's been offered opportunities to direct tent-poles like the upcoming Justice League movie. But, for our sakes, I hope he resists the temptation to slide into spectacle movie-making and keeps churning out movies like the ones he's made so far.
I can't wait to see this one.
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