Finally!  I caught up with some of the major films this season, and I did it in a back-to-back viewing marathon (okay, mini-marathon) in the days before Christmas.

Here’s my quick take on Argo, the Ben Affleck-directed political caper. A total movie movie, it’s worth your time, money, and a bag of popcorn.

With the cheerfully ascerbic Alan Arkin, looking every inch his entire 200 years, and the cheerfully cynical John Goodman chewing up the edges of this true-life tale, Argo offers us a finely-calibrated, edge-of-your-seat political thriller, loaded with tightly calibrated acting finesse and split-second timing. As a director, Affleck is truly surprising. The film thrashes deftly through the events of a few weeks during the Iran hostage situation of 1980.

As an “actor” Affleck is nothing to write home about, in fact he’s practically absent while he’s present on-screen. But he manages to nail down the steady central core of CIA operative Tony Mendez, whose assignment is to get six American diplomatic workers—who’ve taken shelter in Iran’s Canadian embassy after the storming of their offices—safely out of the country. And yes that means all the props of great spy capers—forged passports, fake IDs, shredding of documents, but most of all the attempt to concoct a cover story the Iranian rebels will believe. If Iranian customs officers suspect that the six people Affleck’s character is attempting to remove from the Canadian embassy are in fact Americans, they’re all toast.

Enter a fake movie called Argo and the cover story—concocted hilariously by Affleck, Goodman and Arkin—that the six captives are actually six film scouts looking for locations to film their low-budget sci fi story. And they haven’t been in Iran for two months, but only two days. Afleck’s character is in charge of all the cover details and the trio concoct a backstory and plant a trail of media hype to back up the backstory. Then they have to sell it to the CIA, White House, etc. Meanwhile, the six diplomatic workers are coming unglued after hiding out so long in the embassy, some wanting to make a run for it, others urging a wait and see approach. All are going stir-crazy, and with each passing day the chances of their discovery as American agents grows closer.

Argo is juicily loaded with tension, terrific camerawork and editing and remarkable directorial chops in terms of maintaining a tight, claustrophobic mood among the captives. Meanwhile, back in CIA headquarters, Mendez has to convince his bosses that this bogus film cover story will fly. And it is a stretch to be sure. The actors cast as CIA brass and as the sequestered displomats are all equally top-notch. The whole thing is a little gem of insider machinations and political deal-cutting. Given the recent Benghazi debacle, this little tale has relevance on steroids.