The Seventh Great Movie Of The Year.

In the late 70s, as the people of his country starved, the Shah of Iran spent like an MFer. His wife took baths in milk; he had his lunch flown in daily from Paris. He was diagnosed with cancer around the same time Iranians finally went apeshit, and he fled the country, looking for safe-haven and treatment. America stupidly took him in and embraced him. With enough time and distance, it’s safe to say we not only shit the bed, we shat the nightstands as well.

The Iranians wanted him back to stand trial, and when we didn’t acquiesce, Americans inside the embassy in Tehran were trapped like sitting ducks and taken hostage. Six escaped and went into protection, but the clock was ticking until they’d be found, tortured and publicly hanged.

And that’s where Argo begins. I’ve blogged before about how much I love Ben Affleck as a director and actor (he’s the new Scorsese), and with Argo he’s hit another grand slam. Even if you know the result of his character Tony Mendez’s mission in this film – a true story about a long-held secret in American history – the tension-filled sequences are so perfect they’ll make you physically sick. I love it.

Also great: Alan Arkin as the Hollywood producer and John Goodman as the makeup artist working with Mendez to hatch his scheme. The movie infuses a comical tone whenever possible, and most of the time, Arkin and John are involved, looking like they had a blast shooting this.

See it. It’s awesome.