A Movie Within a Movie.

Rating: 10/10 (11 September 2015)

Argo (2012): Dir: Ben Affleck / Cast: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Clea DuVall: Tense true story political thriller about six American hostages within an Iranian territory. It opens in 1979 with chaos at the American Embassy. Six Americans escaped and are sheltered by the Canadian Ambassador. Ben Affleck plays a CIA specialist who constructs an escape plan that involves making a fake science fiction film. The idea is to promote a film through the media in hopes of faking location scout but in reality it is an escape plan. Affleck gets in touch with a makeup artist and from there he touches face with a producer who is about to receive an achievement award. While the fake film is beginning filming, Affleck travels to Iran and meets the Canadian Ambassador and the six Americans. Affleck instructs them to act as a film crew and they memorize their roles with regards to the fake film. Very powerful and an even bigger achievement for Affleck as director than his previous film The Town. Affleck is on a roll and also pulls off an effective performance as a CIA specialist who is good at his job but putting it together is problematic. After several career embarrassments about ten years prior, it is great to see him demonstrate his true talent. Bryan Cranston is superb as Affleck's CIA contact. In other roles there is John Goodman as a film makeup artist, and Alan Arkin as a film producer who provides some of the best comic lines. Whether this is faithful to the source material is up to the scholars, but it proves that Affleck's skill as a director is above doing fake movies. Score: 10 / 10