What's the title mean? Ar, go watch it now!

Rating: 9/10 (13 November 2012)

After a few minutes of setting the context(for us Westerners who might have forgotten or repressed it... this is very honest about the US' role in these things, even the negative; it does also make them out to be the main solution ultimately, but in ways, this is a Hollywood picture... a great, smart, entertaining one), we see the events leading to the hostage crisis, and six Americans get out of the backdoor, unseen, hiding in the house of the Canadian ambassador, though they still need further help... and when Jack Bristow calls for backup, you know things have gotten serious. This never for a second lets us forget the fury(this is tense from start to finish(and all from human beings, with next to no guns or chases - instead, methodically setting up and gradually escalating conflicts, you can follow it all never wondering how something suddenly happened), getting extremely close to being overpowering yet never crossing that boundary... in particular the claustrophobic scenes are unforgettable) of the Iranians(who are people, with faces, with tragic stories... we understand and sympathize with them, and there is basically no villain, nor a wholly wrong side), cutting between them, the codenamed Houseguests, and the CIA who frantically try to come up with a cover for sneaking them out - including exfiltration expert Tony Mendez(Affleck, too pretty to portray a damaged spy... alcoholic? Heavy smoker? Come on... sure, he's got a beard that makes him look like Garner had him sleep on the couch for a week, but still; in spite of this, he is otherwise convincing), who comes up with the idea of a fake movie(which becomes a big deal, making the point of how the medium captures our attention and inspires our imagination, a running theme). This leads to jokes about the business(done better than many other times) with Goodman as a make-up FX guru and Arkin as an eccentric producer. And with the intelligence agents, particularly our lead(who continues to be incredibly impressive as a director) and Jack O'Donnell(Cranston, determined), there is some black comedy, to relieve the pressure of knowing you might be dead tomorrow... it's funny(as two thirds of the material in this is, without detracting from it being nailbiting, rather, the two complement each other), and credible, as the entire thing is(until the contrived climax). The production design makes you believe it's the late 70's, with the huge glasses and porn moustaches. Every character has motivations that make sense, feel real, and the ones we don't spend much time with are effectively developed with the dialog and screen time they do get. The acting is great from all(the one complaint one could make is that there is no standout, no Jeremy Renner), and the cast is phenomenal(some of them getting far too little to do, like Philip Baker Hall!). There is a lot of disturbing, often violent(not bloody) content, a moderate amount of strong language, and brief female nudity(topless and from behind) in this. I wholeheartedly recommend this to any fan of political drama-thrillers. 9/10