dvd of the week
Ben Affleck’s film about the insane plan the CIA devised (“This is the best bad idea we have”) to rescue six American embassy workers from Iran in 1980 is thrilling, funny and nearly flawless.
The merging of a satirical comedy about Hollywood, the paranoid suspense in Iran, and the wonkish, but often very funny drama of Washington, D.C. is seamlessly handled in Chris Terrio’s masterful script and Affleck’s direction of himself, his all-star cast, and the complex action sequences.
Nominated for seven Academy Awards, it is the odds-on favorite to win Best Picture. But bizarrely, Affleck was not nominated for Best Director, one of the worst crimes in Academy history.
