At this point in the awards season it seems to be unanimous, the film of the season is Ben Affleck’s “Argo.”

I assume most crusaders have either seen the movie, read Zer’s review, or are about to read Zer’s review, so I won’t waste space with an overly involved plot outline.

However I will say this: what impressed me most about this film was how they set the stage. The history that led to the hostage crisis is told through a storyboard, with a certain mythical flair. This fanciful pitch then drops us in the middle of a very real and very tense Iran and from there the story unfolds.

Of course, the tale would not be complete without a lot of help from Hollywood and that brings us to my other favorite part of this film, the comedic contrast of John Goodman and Alan Arkin as Hollywood hot shots doing their best to help out the CIA. Their banter, snark, Hollywood excess, and over the top screenplay bring levity to a tense moment in history.

This balance of humor, history, and tense moments of human conflict allow for the plot, which many already know the ending of, to maintain a surprising level of suspense. “Argo” chronicles an epic and tense moment of human conflict which happened to involve a grandly ridiculous concept made all the more absurd by its veracity. The result inspires, intrigues, and entertains.

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