Argo Fuck Yourself

Bet you now got a flavor of the tonality of this film: it's direct, it’s hard hitting, it’s politically incorrect and yet gracefully manages to keep its head above water. The storyline resonates  with the geopolitics of its time yet somehow escapes getting the genre label of a docu-drama. The one thing the film does not thankfully, overdo is pretense. Not afraid to call a spade a spade when it's convenient, the film has even the trappings of a steamy White House press briefings session so that luring a mainstream audience to line up for tickets at the box office: the same audience who given half a chance would line up for say, Harry Potter, Troy, the Lord of the Rings or Confessions of a Shopaholic, is nothing short of a miracle. The sharp screen play and incisive script gives me an almost urge to unzip, truly and literally. You could say it even has a libidinous effect on me. To me, Ben Affleck was always a chocolate hero and seeing the actor director in him at his crowning moment in Argo I was prepared to eat my hat, literally. The dude’s metamorphosed into something else. This is profound cinema: cinema in its finest hour. Haven’t watched anything remotely close to this since Hotel Rwanda some 6 years ago which is longer than when I first started to blog.


Anyway, I guess you will appreciate the film more if you have spent any length of time living in the Middle East. The scene at the airport where the Revolutionary Guard pulls up the Canadian filming crew for further questioning and where their cover is all but blown, gives me the goose bumps as I am sure it does all expats who can relate to what it's like passing through immigrations and customs whether it is Mehrabad airport(Tehran) or Kuwait airport; in the 70s or present day. You don’t necessarily need to have done anything majorly wrong to invite their wrath. Must say, have always found Hollywood films with a Mideastern twist  to be absorbing, intense and you could say homoerotic in a way: Lawrence of Arabia, the Battle of Algiers,  Casablanca, the Man who knew too much, Topkapi, Not without My daughter, Death of a Princess, Munich, Sex and the City-the Film and now Argo.

In a world post 9/11 there is today a sense of trying to get to know and understand your enemy rather well which explains the ascendancy of movies in Hollywood that are shot through the wide angle lens of Middle Eastern landscapes and characters. In Bollywood too the Middle East has evinced some interest  as we are seeing in "Basra" - a film that threatens to touch many a raw nerves with its take on human trafficking and the drugs scene in the Persian Gulf. The original plan was to film on location in Kuwait and Iraq until that is, the producers went bust.  Someday though, the project will revive or I am a Dutchman and the Ayatollah was never an Iranian. With the film poster itself of Argo, you have seen enough of it to know you are on to an edge of the seat thriller film. What's so remarkable about the film is how well the director could manage to keep the candle burning at both ends as actor director extracting powerhouse performances from all of his actors including self, the cinematographers and yes, the film's editors. There's never a dull moment here. It's also an ideas factory where innovation never seems to run out of steam- case in point is the locations shoot. Amazing camera work and stunning visual imagery are the two USPs for this film. Having said, that I have it on good authority the film was positively not shot on location in the  Islamic Republic of Iran- hell no, it is southern California; home to a large Persian diaspora made to pass off as Tehran. What partly cooked Argo's goose, however; I think was its trademark caricature of all things Islamist and post the Shah of Iran as barbaric and puritanical and lacking in a humane touche, which in actual fact, was not wholly true. A sneak peek into the lives of ordinary Irani citizens in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Shah regime would have done much to add further reel life garnish to the film.

Lately, film making by movie actors turned directors/ producers is gaining much traction with films by the likes of Denzel Washington, George Clooney, Clint Eastwood, Tom McCarthy and Ron Howard all making their mark. I find some films they have made to be far better than the films they were in, as lead actors. Now what does that tell you about their acting credentials?! WINK wink.
What do I care? It's all good as long as they give us wholesome entertainment one way or the other.

Anyway, I leave you to decide if it's your money's worth while I go fuck myself!