Argo, the latest pulse-pounding,
refreshingly intelligent thriller from actor/former tabloid sensation/now-respectable
director Ben Affleck, opens with an animated montage that summarizes the general
political history and climate of Iran. A combination of cartoon storyboards and
archival video footage are used to illustrate the circumstances that led to the
United States offering asylum to a deposed, cancer-stricken shah and the
subsequent 1979 storming of the American embassy by a group of Iranian
students, who held hostages there for 444 days. What follows is a gripping account
of how the CIA, led by technical operations officer Tony Mendez, helped extract
six Americans who’d escaped the embassy by disguising them as Canadian crew
members for a fabricated movie. Gifted with such a fascinating (and,
considering the recent attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, eerily relevant)
storyline, Affleck turns in his best work yet as a director. Who would’ve
thought that the star of such gems as Armageddon
and Gigli would be such a virtuoso
behind the camera? What’s more, it’s only his third feature film, and if this
current trend keeps up, his next one could be even better.
Affleck’s skill in generating
suspense and atmosphere had already been fairly well established by Gone Baby Gone and The Town, but with Argo,
he lays to rest any worries that he’d be lost stepping outside his comfort zone
(i.e. Boston-set crime dramas). Displaying a rather impressive commitment to
authentic period detail, particularly with the garishly ’70s costumes and
hairstyles, he effortlessly makes the leap from contemporary Beantown to Jimmy
Carter-era D.C. and Iran. Stylistic flourishes are kept to a minimum in this
well-crafted, tightly paced procedural that sometimes feels almost
documentary-like in its restrained, unshowy approach.
Further supporting the veneer of
realism is the top-notch yet largely unrecognizable cast. Surrounded by
talented unknowns and a host of likable character actors like John Goodman,
Alan Arkin and Victor Garber, Affleck is the only big-name, A-list star in the
film, though TV lovers will likely recognize Breaking Bad’s Bryan
Cranston as Mendez’s superior and Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights in a small role as the president’s chief of staff.
The result is a collection of performances that all nicely blend in and
complement, rather than overshadow, each other; even the lead role is free of
flashy posturing, perhaps a bit of a surprise seeing that Affleck cast himself
in it. Though no one stands out a la Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone or Jeremy Renner in The Town, the cast as an ensemble is easily one of the best in any
movie so far this year.
However, there is perhaps nothing
more admirable about Argo than the
way it handles the politically charged material at its core. In the years since
9/11, Hollywood has churned out films that deal with terrorism, the
Iraq/Afghanistan wars and various other issues linked to U.S. involvement in
the Middle East. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of these have been financial and/or
critical busts. Aside from just generally not being very good, they tend to get
weighed down by their political sentiments in the form of either overbearing,
flag-waving patriotism or self-righteous finger-pointing and crude, sweeping
condemnations; the filmmakers more often than not seem more interested in
sending messages than in telling a story. Unlike The Hurt Locker, which is arguably the best movie thus far about
these subjects and solves the whole dilemma by taking an apolitical approach
and largely ignoring it altogether, Argo
opts to tackle it head-on. While the movie spends the majority of its screen
time focused squarely on the set-up and execution of the rescue mission and,
therefore, does not go into great depth about the background and details of the
turmoil in the Middle East, it acknowledges the complexity and ambiguity of the
issues involved, declining to make any overt statements about who is or isn’t
right or what should be done. It rightfully implicates the U.S. as a
significant, responsible party in brewing the conflict that leads to the
embassy hostage crisis but without resorting to sanctimonious preaching or the
broad vilification of either side.
Of late, critics and pop culture
commentators have developed an affinity for bemoaning the disappearance of
movies for grown-ups. Though the complaint comes off as pretentious and
probably isn’t all that accurate in the first place, bathed in rose-tinted
nostalgia as any such lamentations are, Argo
seems to be the exact kind of movie that those people are searching for.
Settled comfortably in that middle road between blockbuster and Oscar-bait
drama, it’s a shrewd, skillfully-made thrill-ride that engrosses from opening
to closing credits. More films like this would not be a bad thing at all.
Photo Link:
No comments:
Post a Comment