Wag the Persian cat

Argo

Crit

I was course grown up (technically, at least) when all this was going down, so I do remember the hostage crisis well, but what I remember more vividly came probably the last year before the revolution, when Iranian students, wearing masks to avoid identification by Savak, would regularly gather on the University of Illinois quad to chant, "Down with the fascist puppet, down with the shah!" I was there to see history happening, but all I thought was that it had a pretty good beat.

This is a smart film, and I say that not just because it avoids the obvious pitfall of mispronouncing Hamilton Jordan's surname. (And by the way, Kyle Chandler really is a dead ringer for Jordan, isn't he? It didn't occur to me until later to think, "Coach Taylor!") I'd read that director Ben Affleck is self-effacing in his treatment of star Ben Affleck, which I guess means there's just one shot of him shirtless, but what I like about his work is that he recognizes that sometimes, when you have one plot element that's completely absurd and another that's a literal matter of life and death, sometimes it's best to sequester the two. The funny parts of this are straight out of Wag the Dog (which I might just have to watch tonight), with the ominous subtext as sub as can be; then, having served as bridge between the prologue and the thriller proper, the comic elements have the good sense to go away.

What's left is a story only slightly more unbelievable than the documentary I saw Friday, and apparently only slightly more unfactual.

Trailers

• Gangster Squad--As I recall, in L.A. Confidential we only hear Mickey Cohen's name; here we get to see him played by Sean Penn.