Theres already a lot of positive talk about Ben Afflecks third as a filmmaker, Argo. Oscar talk. If collated reviews are your thing, the film has an 86 on Metacritic. It's a high score (almost) justified. Following on from his two previous directorial hits, Argo confirms the resurrection of Ben Affleck. Dead is J Los ex-husband Ben Affleck, Hollywoods newest promising young director, stands in his place. The tale of how, in 1980, agent Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), along with his CIA supervisor (Bryan Cranston) and Hollywood pals (John Goodman and Alan Arkin), conjured up some fake movie location scouting to extract diplomats from revolutionary Iran, Argo is the most remarkable true story to come out of America for some time. The potential for exploring deeper themes is there - East vs. West, or American foreign policy, for example - but largely ignored. Doesn't matter. This film isnt trying to be anything profound, but as a cracking, efficient drama, it wholly succeeds. Argo is a triumph in a way Gone Baby Gone and The Town arent (solid films though they are) because, for the first time, this feels like Ben Affleck: director behind the camera, not Ben Affleck: recovering Hollywood failure. His technique here seems at ease, perhaps because he doesnt have to prove anything anymore, but the naturalistic performances and camerawork are like the best of the 70s cinema the film so often evokes. The cinematography has a lovely handheld, grainy aesthetic, perhaps a rather obvious visual echo of Alan J. Pakula and conspiracy thrillers of that ilk, but it works. Affleck also injects something sorely lacking from his previous two: humour. As much as Argo is a rousing yarn, Chris Terrio's fascinating screenplay had to recognise the absurdity, and does. Humour relieves the tension (of which there is oodles, especially in the Lumet-like opening scene and nail-biting climax) and lightens the mood, until the film almost becomes a black comedy about race relations. John Goodman and Alan Arkin make a great, cantankerous comic double act as fake make-up artist and fake producer respectively, repeatedly toasting Mendez' fake film with "Argo-fuck yourself."
Elsewhere, the casting is similarly impeccable, a glorious ensemble of faces (easily one of the years best). It's a wise move the story is so chock-full of characters that the movie needs big, reliable players to bring them to life. Of the standouts, Scoot McNairy follows up what should be his star-making Killing Them Softly performance with another excellent role as Head Hostage, and a restrained-turned-raging Bryan Cranston proves why hes got the supporting actor gig secured for the rest of his career. No-one puts a foot wrong. Affleck is like an Eastwood in his relationship with actors, casting the best and getting the best out of them. Its his key directorial strength. He may make himself the central star but it doesnt feel as vain as in The Town; Tony Mendez is simply the straight man caught up in it all. That's not to say Argo is perfection. There are perhaps too many characters swirling around the film for us to empathise with them all and Mendez is a tad underwritten as a main man (the strained relationship with his wife and son is barely explored, barely relevant, to the point of it being entirely unnecessary). Affleck's cinematic eye is also still evolving, so he plays things a little safe visually - disregarding, that is, the animated title sequence that gives us a crash-course in Iranian history. There's just still not that much memorable about Affleck's camerawork. That's nitpicking, though, when a film is this well-crafted and when its relatively new director is improving so rapidly. Argo isnt the second coming of political thrillers some critics would have you believe, but it is an entertaining movie full of laughs and edgy storytelling. It also does something unimaginable only a few years ago: it gets you genuinely excited for the next Ben Affleck film, even if that is as director rather than actor.