"If I'm gonna make a fake movie, it's gonna be a fake hit"

Hello Everyone :-)

It’s awards season! Yay!

I like awards season. I know it’s all film people giving themselves a pat on the back and every year we ask ourselves if ceremonies like the Oscars are relevant anymore (My Twitter friend Ross wrote an article on the subject last year on the Huffington Post, read it and follow him, he’s lovely). However I’m the kind of girl that gets distracted by sparkle and giddy at glitz so I always enjoy watching awards ceremonies, especially when you’ve recorded them and can whizz all the boring bits. And… there’s always the possibility that someone might swear.

So the other week was the BAFTAs and I think we gave as good as our American counterparts in terms of pomp and circumstance. The big winner of the night was ‘Argo’ that walked away with Best Editing, Best Director and Best Picture (You can see all the winners here).

‘Argo’ centres on the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. During this conflict 6 US embassy workers escaped capture and were forced into hiding at the Canadian embassy. The US State department explores options for "exfiltrating" the 6 from Iran. Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), a CIA specialist, is brought in for consultation and comes up with the idea of pretending that the escaped embassy workers are a Canadian film crew looking for a filming location for their next movie. Tony then enlists the help of industry insiders Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) and John Chambers (John Goodman) to help him make his fake film seem as real as possible.

This is a topic about which I knew nothing prior to seeing this film. I don’t just mean the immediate story (which was kept classified until 1997), I mean the entire hostage situation (history is really not my strong suit). That said my lack of knowledge didn’t impede my enjoyment of the film at all, in fact I think it enhanced it. The good Doctor Kermode always refers to an incident when he was watching a press screening of ‘Apollo 13’ and a fellow critic was on the edge of their seat because they were didn’t know whether everyone made it out alive, despite the fact it was based on a well-documented historical event. The same is true for me and ‘Argo’.

What stuck me first off was the 70’s-ness of it all. It looks great. Second thing that struck me was the sense of authenticity. There are multiple scenes of rioting and civil unrest that look like they could have bee taken from the footage of the ongoing Arab Spring uprisings. The film has a palpable tension that really impressed me.

Ben Affleck stars as well as directs in ‘Argo’ and acquits himself well on both counts.

Affleck plays Tony as a very subdued, pensive man which works well. However, what I’m most impressed by is his directorial prowess. One of the main strengths of ‘Argo’ is its ability to weave seamlessly between comedy and tension. There is a scene where Tony, Lester and John are hosting a press junket to promote their (unbeknownst to the press) fake movie and it’s all quite jovial. This is inter-cut with scenes from the US embassy in Iran where hostages are being tormented by their captors. It’s a brilliant piece of cinema that really gave me an insight into the talent working behind this film.

That’s not the only talent involved in this venture either. John Goodman and Alan Arkin are brilliant as the two movie makers. They are a necessary comic relief and bounce off each other effortlessly.

The roles of the 6 escapees could have been a bit of a ‘tab A into slot A’ exercise but was impressed by how much the characters were fleshed out. Scoot McNairy and Rory Cochrane particularly stood out for me.



I don’t really know what I was expecting when I went to see ‘Argo’. Considering the period in which it’s set I’d half expect younger audiences to switch off but the screening I was at was solely attended by under-30’s and, like me, they were all laughing and perched on the edge on the edge of their seats throughout.

It may not have the grandeur of ‘Les Miserables’, the historical significance of ‘Lincoln’ or the emotional resonance of ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ but it it’s own, quiet way I think ‘Argo’ deserves its place in this year’s awards roster.

Showcase cinemas are re-showing ‘Argo’ prior to this year’s Academy awards; catch it while it’s there!

After all that awards talk lets have some…

Reasons to be cheerful

1. I don’t know how this has escaped my attention but the god-like genius that is Guillermo Del Toro has a film out this year. 12th July will see the release of the CGI-laden ‘Pacific Rim’ to our silver screens. It looks like it could be seven shades of hideous ‘Transformers’ rip off but knowing that Del Toro has had a hand in proceedings calms my nerves. I’m looking forward to it.

2. STAR TREK!!!!! So much ‘Star Trek’ news so little time! Here is the official trailer for ‘Into Darkness’ with the beautiful and bulked up Benedict Cumberbatch being all sexy and badass. Also… Photos! I actually could not be more excited about this if I tried!

That’s enough wittering from me.

Goodbye till next time :-)

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