Ben Affleck
Argo

In my opinion, Ben Affleck (in cahoots with George Clooney, producer) himself couldn't believe it entirely even after finishing the film. I mean, come on, you're Ben Affleck, you already have an Oscar at home (in "co-habitation" with Matt Damon for the screenplay of "Good Will Hunting," 1997) and you're still an important actor, but you're not a renowned director and half of the films you've made could be forgotten forever. Yet in 2012, you come out with a film, "Argo," which is practically perfect in every single sequence, and you bring home 3 Oscars, including Best Picture, announced no less than by the then First Lady Michelle Obama (and Jack Nicholson hosting). Bingo, but how did you do it, Ben?

It all starts with a journalistic article by Joshuah Bearman published in Wired and the novel by former CIA agent Tony Mendez (played by Affleck himself in the film), "The Master of Disguise." It's an intelligence operation dating back to 1979 but revealed to the public only thirty years later. What is revealed to the public is journalistically delightful and, at the same time, substantial, so much so that screenwriter Chris Terrio (also rightly awarded an Oscar) makes it a work of exfoliation that is both meticulous and punctilious. The plot would be incredible if it weren't (dramatically) true: in late '70s Iran, the crowd storms the American embassy in Tehran and takes 52 officials hostage. Six manage to escape and hide in the home of Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador. Since they would risk their lives if discovered, the State Department tries to save them in every way possible, but the only viable solution, though bordering on the incredible, seems to be CIA agent Mendez's plan: set up a fake movie production intent on shooting a fantasy titled Argo, and suddenly the six prisoners become members of a completely non-existent Hollywood crew. Fooling the American studios and the press is a breeze, less so the not-so-gullible Iranian officials. One might suspect Tony Mendez watched "The Sting" many times, given the basic idea (there a fake betting agency, here a fake movie set).

What convinces is the narrative path Affleck takes, halfway between comedy and spy film. The whole part where the six have to fool Hollywood, with the complicity of an old slickster brilliantly played by the ever-great (in every sense) John Goodman, is pure comedy, deceit, tricks by seasoned professionals. The espionage part, and thus the historical reconstruction, is incredibly fitting: Iran in 1979 is impeccably staged, but what surprises even more are the countless moments of tension that Affleck consistently weaves into the film, and in this regard, one cannot help but mention the entire final escape that occupies twenty minutes total and manages to keep even the most distracted viewer on the edge of their seat (great editing work by William Goldenberg, deserved Oscar). Thriller and irony merge into a singular entity with distant precedents (the socially engaged cinema of the '70s) and see Affleck getting a few things off his chest, given the decidedly unflattering portrayal of Hollywood populated by ignorant rich folks and idiotic producers.

A classic production, very classic for 2012, and a direction of actors that leaves one speechless. Then, of course, the names involved are of undeniable prestige: Alan Arkin; John Goodman; Christopher Denham. It almost seems as though Affleck wanted to pay homage to a cinema dear to him, where genres blended until they formed a solid magma where everything (from the screenplay to the direction, from photography to the soundtrack) fitted effortlessly into place. And not even the duration, a flat 2 hours, really suffers from it.

I quote a phrase from a famous critic, which in my opinion well captures Affleck's storytelling of a so miserably depicted Hollywood:

"[...] and in its claiming of the human component of a work that cinema tended to make superheroic".

I agree.