I’ve come to terms with Argo being declared by a number of governing bodies including the oh-so-prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the Best Picture of 2012. It’s ok. I watched it again, and it’s fine, whatever. A well told story that’s engaging throughout and has a conclusion that stretches the definition of “true story” but is fairly well conceived and executed and all that. It’s good. It’s fine. It deserves to be among the year’s acclaimed movies.
I also think I get why it received all this acclaim long after it had been released. In what seems to be the victorious narrative, Ben Affleck was left out of the Best Director category when the Oscar nominations were released, and this led to a flood of sympathy votes for his darling little movie to win every award that came after. This is not necessarily a satisfying explanation in the sense that it’s unfortunate this is the way the world in general and the world of Hollywood more specifically seems to work, but satisfying in the sense that there is an explanation, and this one seems to hold water.
There are other movies that have been the recipients of enormous acclaim, either popularly in the form of box office or word of mouth reception, or from critical raves, none of which makes any sense to me. I’m not saying they’re bad in every case, but the degree to which they’re hailed as great movies baffles me nonetheless. This may just be obtuseness on my part. But I’ve never let that stop me before from sharing my reservations about popular movies.
