Argo

 

You all know I am a Ben Affleck fan, but only since he took a director's position and proved he knows what he is doing. He is currently my favorite director. With 3 films now under that belt, all of them could have been Oscar contenders, but without fail, he has not made that cut just yet. I do feel he was snubbed with his last offering The Town, and while I feel Argo is a shoe in to crack the top 10 noms for Best Picture, I'd more like to see Ben in that illustrious top 5 Directors of the year category. Will he win? I don't know. I don't really care. I just feel he should be recognized for his efforts. I kind of hope he doesn't win. Why? I worry if he wins that prestigious career making award, he may become complacent and not give as much effort as he has. Each of his 3 features show signs of improvement and his "cinematic eye" is growing stronger. As perfect as The Town was, Argo is damn near flawless. Not only is it a true story, but to lay down this ridiculous story into 2 hours and have it be perfect is a feat in and of itself. Argo is the true story about the 1979 Iranian hostage situation that was declassified in 1996. I don't know much about this history because I was not alive in 1979. With that said, you will be given all you need to know to give you a coherent film. There is no info you should know beforehand to enjoy this film. Like I said, Perfect. The Argo mission had nothing to do with the actual hostages, but focused on retrieving 6 Americans who escaped capture and holed up in the Canadian ambassador's mansion in Iran. Tony Mendez (Affleck) is brought in to help. He is the CIA's top ex-fil guy (short for Exfiltration), and he is there to comprise a plan of attack. The ideas that the CIA are coming up with are asinine, and Tony's is not much better. Fortunately for him it is the best bad idea they have. Make a fake movie. The homework aspect of it where Tony goes to Hollywood to get his fake movie made is absolutely hilarious. Sharing screen time equally through this portion of the film is John Goodman playing legendary make up artist John Chambers, and old school movie producer Lester Siegel played by Alan Arkin. This is the comedic portion of the film, and this stupid plan must be 100% perfect, and they only have a few weeks to make it so. With that said,  this movie is a thriller in every sense of the definition. The last half of the movie I sweated out my shirt, my wife picked her cuticles, and I had knots in my stomach. Wanna know what makes a good movie great? Knowing how it will end (Ya know, because it happened 33 years ago) and still being that knotted up. Quality film making Mr. Affleck. If the trailers look at all interesting to you, go watch it. No one should be disappointed in this film, and if you are, well then I will just say one thing, ARGO #U@& YOURSELF.

NBM rates Argo - Phenomenal