Movie Review: ARGO

ARGO
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Bryan Cranston, Clea DuVall, Victor Garber, Tate Donovan

Ben Affleck is back to the director's chair with a remarkable true story. In 1979, The US embassy in Tehran, Iran is taken over by Islamic militants. While many of the staff were taken hostage, six people evade capture and are taken into hiding in the home of the Canadian ambassador (Garber). Now the US must figure out how to bring those six people out of hiding and bring them back to the US safely. Tony Mendez (Affleck) is the CIA agent that takes control of the situation and comes up with a brilliant plan.

While on the phone with his son one night, they flip to Battle of the Planet of the Apes showing on TV and watch it together. Sci-Fi movies are all the rage especially after the release of Star Wars. His plan is to go to Iran and claim they are making an exotic sci-fi picture and they are looking for shooting locations. The ruse will include the escapees as members of the film crew. The plan is very risky and can only be done if it is planned and executed down to the smallest minute detail. Mendez hires movie producer Lester Siegel (Arkin) and Oscar winning make-up artist John Chambers (Goodman) to help shape their plan. They rummage through unproduced scripts and find a winner called "Argo". They meticulously plot out everything from a fake studio, storyboards, design concepts, and they even have a fake table read of the fake script. Sci-fi/horror buffs will get a kick out of seeing Adrienne Barbeau in the table read. Like any good thriller, not everything can go smoothly to plan for Mendez and his crew.

If someone would have told me years ago that Ben Affleck would go on to be an accomplished, respected director, I probably would have laughed and made them re-watch Gigli or Reindeer Games. After winning an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting, Ben chose to make bigger Hollywood blockbusters instead going for more serious movies. Within the past couple of years his career has taken a turn into the directing field. I was taken aback by how smart and gripping his directorial choices have been. His previous movies Gone Baby Gone and The Town both win critical and audience praise. Affleck assembles an excellent company of actors for all three of the movies he has chosen to direct. Amy Ryan and Jeremy Renner both garnered Oscar nominations for their performances in those movies.

Argo is another prime example of the skill Affleck is showing as a director. Sharp story-telling and editing keep the momentum going at a quick pace to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. There are plenty of witty lines allowing some laughs in between all of the suspense. I was consistently eyeing the costume and hair design. The look seemed authentic and real without it feeling to "costumey". Affleck has another excellent cast including Clea DuVall and Tate Donovan as two of the escapees as well as Philip Baker Hall, Bryan Crantson, Kyle Chandler, Zeljko Ivankek, and Titus Welliver. Arkin and Goodman are fantastic supporting actors and bring out the humor in each of their characters. As a rule, I don't like to throw the Oscar word around willy nilly. I am making an exception here. I think the Academy will definitely take notice of Affleck's job as a director as well as giving nominations for picture and screenplay. Possible nominations could go to Arkin and costume design. Argo will appear on many Top 10 Lists at the end of the year. Including this critic.


RATING: **** 1/2 (4.5 out of 5 stars)

Movie Review: LOOPER

LOOPER
Director: Rian Johnson
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Piper Perabo, Paul Dano

What is a looper? That may be the question on everyone’s mind as they step in to see the latest film by Rian Johnson, the creative mind behind Brick and The Brothers Bloom. A looper is a trained assassin whose sole job is to kill a person sent back in time from the future. In 2074, time travel will be invented and outlawed. The city is overrun by crime and corruption and humans have trackers in them. For these crime bosses, it has become nearly impossible to dispose of a body without it being found by the tracking device. For each victim, they tie the person up, cover their head, and attach a plate of silver bars to them and send them back to 2044. The looper will shoot the person the moment it arrives before they have a chance to escape. They will then properly dispose of it by dumping it into an incinerator. The silver bars are their payment. A looper’s job is all in the hands of the crime bosses. At any moment the loop can be closed if the crime boss sends the future version of the looper back to the past to be killed.

In 2044, Joe Simmons (Gordon-Levitt) seems to be an expert at his job. He is at the corn field, weapon in one hand, time piece in another, waiting for the moment the body shows up. He spends his spare time at an exotic club and fools around with one of the dancers (Perabo). The future of his job comes into question one night when his best friend Seth (Dano) comes to his apartment in a scared frantic panic. Seth explains to Joe that his future self showed up to close the loop. Seth freaked out and didn’t shoot his future self in time and he escaped. Before he escaped, he revealed that there is a future crime boss known as The Rainmaker that is closing all of the loops. Their boss Abe (Daniels) sends out his hit men to Joe’s apartment looking for Seth.

Things get further complicated for Joe when his next assignment shows up and it is revealed that it is the future version of himself (Willis). Joe panics and Future Joe escapes. They eventually meet again in a diner to discuss what is going on in the future. Future Joe describes his capture by The Rainmaker and how his wife was killed in the process. Now that Future Joe is back in 2044, he is intent at killing The Rainmaker as a child in order to save his wife. Joe traces a map back to a farmhouse where he meets Sara (Blunt) and her son Cid who could potentially be The Rainmaker. Romance becomes another kink in the plot the more time Joe spends with Sara.

Time travel is a tricky genre to get right for the audience. I feel like if it starts to get convoluted, you will lose the audience as they get more and more confused. If it is too simple, the audience will see right passed the story and predict the outcome. It has never really been my favorite genre for these reasons. Looper gets it right by setting its own time travel rules and sticking to them all the while throwing in some curveballs to keep you guessing on what will happen next. Johnson allows the film and story to have some fun at the same time. The idea of the future of technology includes paper thin cell phones and computers, hover craft style motorcycles, and heavy duty ammunition. The violence and gun shots are stylistically over-the-top.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one fantastic young actor working in Hollywood today. This is his third of four movies released in 2012 following The Dark Knight Rises and Premium Rush. His next, Lincoln, will be released in November. He consistently picks different genres and styles of projects and excels at each one of them. He completely nails the Bruce Willis vocal and physical mannerisms making the connection between the two of them completely believable. The make-up work is fantastic at turning Gordon-Levitt into the younger version of Willis. Emily Blunt goes outside her usual romantic comedy genre and transforms herself into the dowdy look of Sara. It’s a far cry from the elegant and posh Blunt I imagine her to be. Don’t let the time travel concept turn you away. Looper is an original thrill ride in the same way The Terminator was for its time. The concept is stylish and jaw-dropping and will keep you guessing until the end. Plus, it has Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. Win and Win.

RATING: **** 1/2 ( 4.5 out of 5 stars)