While it isn’t exactly a conspiracy theory, it should be pretty obvious that a lot of the loud buzz about Argo has to do with catering to—and hence attracting—the youth market, the 20somethings who are busy avoiding movie theaters and texting their way to oblivion.

I have adult friends who actually complained that Lincoln was “about history” and they grimaced as if swallowing echinacea straight from the bottle as they said this. Yes, it’s true Abraham Lincoln hasn’t been alive for a long, long time. Does that make Spielberg’s masterpiece somehow dismissible?

Are we so postmodern that even a film about a historical figure is considered incapable of moving, entertaining, enlightening?

But I digress. Back to the hypola around Argo.

Part of it is to whip up the younger market. Another part is to slap aroundone of the most influential people in Hollywood—Steven Spielberg. To make him suffer. Poor Spielberg, a victim of his own filmmaking success.

Argo is a film that ironically suffers from the same defect that is its strength, namely Ben Affleck.  Affleck the director really concocted a nifty Iran espionage thriller. Affleck the actor could euthanize large animals simply by walking on camera. I’ve seen granola deliver more on-screen excitement than this poor guy.

So all this Argo talk is a smokescreen. Whether it’s because of the desire to attract Affleck’s fans, or the need to slap Spielberg around, something’s afoot. Argo is a smartly made, brisk, thriller. The Best Movie of 2012, it ain’t.