Ben Affleck continues to hone his craft as a masterful director while re-establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s leading men on the screen. After some misfires (Pearl Harbor, Daredevil) and downright flubs (Gigli, Surviving Christmas) during the early part of the decade, Affleck stepped to the other side of the camera for the first time and directed the critically acclaimed Gone Baby Gone. In 2010, he directed and starred in the stirring action-drama The Town. As great as both of those movies were, Affleck was not recognized for either with an Academy Award nomination. That will change this year as Argo is destined for Best Picture and Best Director Academy Award nominations.

Based on the true story of a CIA operative named Tony Mendez (Affleck) who attempts to rescue six Americans who have found refuge in the neighboring Canadian Embassy after the US embassy in Tehran is stormed by angry Iranian militants during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979. Affleck does a fantastic job of telling the story leading up to the current situation. Long-time Iranian ruler Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a man who had his lunches flown to him from Paris, France, while hundreds of thousands of his people were going hungry every day, is sick with terminal cancer and, much to the delight of most of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrows him and his regime. However, the Iranian people were unhappy when Shah was allowed asylum in the United States to get treatment for his illness. They stormed the United States Embassy to protest. As a result, 58 Americans are working out of the Embassy. When it becomes apparent that Embassy is about to be overrun by the angry Iranians and their lives potentially in danger, it is decided that they will burn any documents in the building.

As the main Embassy building is being raided, the six Americans working out of the Visa office in the back of the compound quickly decide to kick all those applying for Visas to the streets and follow them out. Their building is the only building on the grounds that has direct access to the back streets. The Americans know they have just minutes before they are surrounded by angry Iranian militants looking for any reason to hurt them physically. If they are found on the streets trying to escape the Embassy, they will surely be killed. Finally, the six make it to the Canadian Embassy, where they are taken in as “house guests” by the only two people occupying the house, a middle-aged couple named Ken and Pat Taylor.

Meanwhile, Tony Mendes and his boss Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston – Drive, Larry Crowne) are brought to the Department of the State to discuss possible ways to ex-filtrate the six Americans. The best suggestion the department has come up with has the six Americans bicycle their way 200 miles in the dead of winter to the nearest border. While watching a Planet of the Apes movie that night, Mendes comes up with the idea of assembling a film crew to scout locations in different parts of the Middle East (including Iran) for an upcoming movie based on the script he picked, Argo. This successfully puts Mendes in Iran, which is where the fun starts.

Plot 10/10
Character Development 8.5/10
Character Chemistry 8.5/10
Acting 8.5/10
Screenplay 10/10
Directing  10/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 9/10
Hook and Reel 10/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
94.5%

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