Shameless Self Expression

Set in 1979, when an American embassy in Tehran was stormed by Iranians, but six embassy officials (Clea DuVall, Tate Donovan, Rory Cochrane, and Scoot McNairy among them) managed to escape and were housed in the home of the Canadian ambassador (Victor Garber). The CIA are tasked with the mission of getting them out of harm’s way, and CIA man Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with the most cockamamie way of getting them out; Pretending that the six are a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a sci-fi epic called “Argo” ! To make the ruse more convincing, he hires real-life Oscar-winning makeup man John Chambers (played by John Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (a composite character played by Alan Arkin). Well, that sounds like a can’t fail plan, right? Actually, it sounds completely insane. Bryan Cranston plays Mendez’s CIA boss, and Michael Parks plays storyboard artist (and co-creator of comic book characters like Iron Man and The Hulk) Jack Kirby.   Director-star B

An asteroid is headed for Earth in about 20 days, and there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s the end of the world. People all around are rioting, freaking out, committing suicide, or just giving into every temptation they have thus far suppressed. Hey, if the world’s gonna end, why not? Steve Carell plays an insurance agent, whose wife takes this particular point in life to walk out on him (Amusingly, she’s played by the real-life Mrs. Carell!). Keira Knightley is his British neighbour, who, save for dickhead boyfriend Adam Brody, is all alone, having missed her flight back home to see her family. And there will never be another flight ever again. So she turns up at Carell’s door one night and they get to talking. Carell’s interest is piqued by a letter from an old girlfriend that he has only now just gotten. She says he was the love of his life. Riotous behaviour in the city forces Carell and Knightley to flee their apartment building. It is then that Carell offers Knightley a deal;