ARGO - A Science Fiction Adventure

This weeks friday night cinema venture involved a revolution, Iran, and a fat makeup artist, yes i am talking about Ben Affleck's best picture winner ARGO. Given the high level of critical acclaim surrounding ARGO i was interesting to see how the film would match up, whether this would be just another excellent yet boring 'Oscar' film, i couldn't have been more wrong. The film is devilishly  entertaining, set during the late 1970's it follows the attempt to rescue a series of trapped American diplomats during the hostage crisis of 1979.

It seems like i am a one trick pony, however i am going to again talking about the visual identity of the film, the movie was recorded on actual film, and the picture subsequently blown up, giving the whole film a grainy quality, creating a vintage film feel, and which allows a more convincing seamless blend with the real film footage used, i also feel that the use of real film is refreshing, in a world where so many films are filmed digitally, (even Martin Scorsese recently made the jump with 2011's Hugo) it is interesting to finally see a film that sacrifices a polished pristine film quality for something more atmospheric and genuine.

I would never normally donate a whole paragraph to something i previously considered so inconsequential as an opening sequence, however here the sequence is simply stunning, the film uses storyboards which transform into real photographic footage from the 1970's, which set the pretext for the story, and which set the story and show the history of Iran and gives us a justification for the actions of the Iranian people. This sequence is incredible, it is intelligent and acts as a premonition of the story which is to come

We come now to the Academy Awards, the film failed to garner a best director nomination, a category which was really screwed up by the academy this year, I also feel that the performance of Victor Garber, who stung as the canadian govenor in Iran in  the film is severely underrated, and is i feel far superior to that of Alan Arkin.

This most definitely IS a rave review, the film is a thrilling film with a great visual identity (sorry) which shows good acting and strong direction, any chance of a comment, let me know how I'm doing, has anyone seen ARGO, leave your comments in the comment box below (cue weird you tube pointing) Rating A+

'Lester Siegel: Argo fuck yourself.' 

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