REVIEWS

Thoughts on Argo (might be spoilery?):

• At this point, Affleck is basically Tom Hanks with swear words and there’s not much we can do to stop him.
• The ensemble cast that you’re going to hear about was mostly confined to the periphery. After the first half hour, this is Affleck, Cranston and whoever played the hostages. Not enough Kyle Chandler, but there’s never enough Kyle Chandler.
• The costumes, sets, production design, all the period stuff — well done. But the structure of the screenplay was super Hollywood, which kind of undercut the immersion aspect.
• It’s gonna please the Academy but I don’t see anyone talking about it five years from now. Unless we bomb Iran in a couple weeks, in which case hey! Free marketing! Prescient distribution! American exceptionalism!
• Compared to films about Americans in the Middle East (and North Africa): Better than Syriana, nowhere near Babel or The Hurt Locker, in terms of emotional impact, probably because…
• It’s a movie about movies, and that’s where its only real moral or theme or whatever comes through. The diplomacy stuff is in service of the show biz stuff, rather than the other way around.
• The suspense was well done, up until the last climactic bit.
• Couple real good moments from Affleck, and he manhandles the rest of the cast through the third and fourth acts, so well done Ben.

I’ll shut up now. Worth seeing, but you’re not gonna miss much by waiting for the DVD.