Ben Affleck's Über-Arresting ARGO

ARGO (Dir. Ben Affleck, 2012)

Actor/director Ben Affleck more than tops THE TOWN (which topped GONE BABY GONE) in his splendid third thriller, ARGO, a sure-fire Oscar contender that boasts a stellar cast, and an über-arresting story.

Based on a previously little known story about the rescue of six Americans from Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, Affleck’s film casts its way back machine spell in the first few minutes starting with the use of Saul Bass’s classic ‘70s Warner Brothers logo (also used this year in Steven Soderbergh’s MAGIC MIKE). A few minutes later, we see authentic looking footage of the storming of the American Embassy in Tehran.

After burning and shredding every document they can, a group of U.S. Diplomats flea the embassy and take shelter at the Canadian ambassador's home nearby.

As CIA technical operations officer Tony Mendez, Affleck brainstorms a plan involving disguising the escapees as a film crew visiting Iran to scout locations for a sci-fi flick named “Argo” so they leave the country under cover.

It’s a plan so crazy, it just might work, or as Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston as a CIA higher-up says to an even higher-up Philip Baker Hall (see what I mean by a stellar cast?): “This is the best bad idea we have, sir. By far.”

To make a fake movie, they need a real producer so Affleck gets Alan Arkin as the fictional Hollywood mogul Lester Siegel, who has some of the best lines as well as the film’s catch-phrase, if you will. John Goodman as make-up artist John Chambers (not fictional) is also on hand, and also good for a few choice lines.

We spend a little quality time with the frightened Americans (Tate Donovan, Scoot McNairy, Clea DuVall, Rory Cochrane, Kerry Bishé, and Christopher Denham) holed up at the Canuck’s makeshift safehouse hoping to avoid detection. They understandably are skeptical of Affleck’s idea, but what choice do they have?

Chris Terrio’s no-nonsense screenplay, based in part on Joshuah Bearman’s 2007 Wired article “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran,” doesn’t strain as it keeps each point of the well-crafted narrative in check.

At first, it might amusingly look like ANCHORMAN, with the Jimmy Carter-era hairstyles and fashions, but that quickly fades into the great grainy look of the film in which cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, BABEL) suitably evokes ‘70s cinema.

Affleck’s film only falters when the mission is almost aborted before the third act, and our leading man sulks until he gets his mojo back. Throughout ARGO, close-ups of Affleck’s bearded mug dominate the screen, but during this bit they are overly omnipresent.

Otherwise, Affleck has made a great movie that could be seen as a salute to the American can-do spirit, as cheesy as that sounds. But primarily it's a movie made by a guy who really loves movies, and really knows how to sell a story. 

Watching this guy, with his cast and crew succeeding in selling this story makes for one of the most intensely entertaining movies of the year. And not only is ARGO is Ben Affleck's best movie as director, it's his best work as an actor. By far.

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THE TOWN: The Film Babble Blog Review

THE TOWN (Dir. Ben Affleck, 2010)

“From the acclaimed director of GONE BABY GONE” goes the trailers and TV spot for this new crime thriller that don’t happen to mention that Ben Affleck is that said acclaimed director. For despite the fact that he’s slowly been gaining respect and career clout over the last several years, Affleck is a name still associated with box office poison like GIGLI and PEARL HARBOR.

GONE BABY GONE was indeed a strong directorial debut, but this much larger production is even stronger. "The Town" is about a crew of expert thieves from a one-square-mile neighborhood in Boston that the opening titles tell us is “the bank robbery capitol of America.”

Affleck, Jeremy Renner (THE HURT LOCKER), Owen Burke, and Irish rapper Slaine make up the crew who we meet in creepy green Skeletor masks and dark hoods in action at a downtown Boston bank. They take an employee hostage (Rebecca Hall) as they make their getaway.

They release the blindfolded Hall not too long after with Renner taking her driver’s license and threatening her life if she talks to the FBI.

Which is exactly what she does - in a traumatized state to an agent played by Jon Hamm (Mad Men). Hamm is determined to bring down Affleck’s crew: “This is a not-screwing-around crew, so find me something that looks like a print ‘cause this not-screwing-around thing is about to go both ways!” he exclaims.

The trigger-happy Renner wants to eliminate Hall since she is a potential witness that could bring them down, but there’s a little problem: Affleck may be falling in love with her.

That started with Affleck following Hall and talking to her at a laundromat. He couldn’t resist turning the charm and she almost immediately took to him.

Affleck, of course, wants out of the life of crime but don’t you know it – the crew + an elderly neighborhood florist who has Godfatherly powers (Peter Postlewaite) wants him to pull another major heist.

Everything comes to a head when…oh, I should stop with the spoilers because the best part is seeing how this all plays out. There is heavy artillery, many deaths, and a bunch of vehicles are wrecked if you want to know if it has plenty of action, but its concern for the characters is what drives it.

Even with a number of tough guy clichés and a certain percentage of implausibility in the last third, Affleck’s adaptation of Chuck Hogan’s novel “Prince Of Thieves” is a superb heist film with a compelling emotional core.

This is largely due to its cast who makes this material work. Affleck’s Boston accent is impressively un-annoying and he plays pathos much more convincingly than in the past.

Hamm hasn’t completely shed the skin of the ultra smooth Don Draper, but his confidence in what could have been a standard by-the-book Fed role nicely contrasts with that of the attitude of the crew’s thug-like lo tech methods.

Hall does a lot with a very little of a character – the woman caught in the middle of a boys club’s row. She has cute chemistry with Affleck and the fearfulness is felt in her restrained shakiness. Renner is one note but he plays it well and it’s all that’s needed from him in this tightly plot.

Chris Cooper as Affleck’s prison lifer father is in one especially effective and necessary scene, and there’s also Blake Lively as a boozy bar floozy.

THE TOWN may not be another crime epic on the scale of HEAT or THE DEPARTED, but it’s a major work by a guy who next time - with hope - will have his name up front in the advertising.

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