Argo

...that America had next to nothing to do with.

(Written November 2012)

The long rich tradition of great American political thrillers just got a little bit longer. If James Bond’s escapist vitriol makes your ears bleed, than good news! You can drag your date to Argo instead, and I promise you will both walk away both enlightened and entertained.

It all starts with a no nonsense history lesson about America’s … (less than courteous) foreign policies towards Iran. When you see Iran’s American embassy overrun, it never feels like enemy action, it’s just desserts.

The main focus of the story is on six refugees who managed to escape the hostage crisis and hide in the Canadian ambassador’s home for three entire months. The CIA is chasing its tail on how to get them out, Affleck’s Tony Mendez looks on in disgust as they settle on a 300 mile bike ride in the middle of winter. He has a better idea. Fake a location scout for a Canadian movie and fly them out undercover.

It’s a story that only works because it actually happened. As fiction it would have collapsed, but instead we have a brilliant examination of two cultures simultaneously where neither side is outright good or evil. Iran hangs traitors from cranes in public squares, and America would rather have its citizens die tragically than embarrassingly while “playing Hollywood.”

But the crowning achievement of the film is its deft balance of humor, suspense, and abject horror. They shouldn’t fit, it should be a jarring tone deaf disaster, but I wouldn’t bat an eyelash if it won best picture.

The performances across the board are phenomenal, only John Goodman could steer a story this grim back to a light comedy and he does it not by bombast, but with a kind of light atmospheric charm that gives the whole film a kinda tonal bear hug. And isn’t a bear hug from John Goodman worth $8.50? Come on. Cranston also does a decent job as a CIA handler and the hostages all seem to coalesce into one character… in a good way, but blink and you’ll miss the man in black from “Lost.”

Ben Affleck, who also directs, seems to fade into the background, just like a G-man should. He’s there to manage the characters in the film, but he simultaneously manages the audience. When he talks the refugees down from their interpersonal panic attacks, he calms us down too. Seriously, even if you know what happens, you’ll still be digging your fingernails into the arm rest

This movie came out at the perfect time; I don’t have to tell you our relations with Iran are near open conflict. But too many Americans don’t have the patience to ask why exactly things are that way. Just because they say our greatest fault is siding with Israel doesn’t mean that’s what they’re really mad at us about.

This is a great story that happens to shed light on an issue that’s much greyer than the public understands. Even though I knew America had basically helped themselves to Iran’s oil reserves for 30 years while they starved under a puppet dictator, I never really understood. I never saw the anger or the desperation many of its citizens rightfully fume over to this day.

See Argo. I promise you’ll see a bigger picture than the one in front of you.