bartmanbilly

The Ides of March

84/100 Mere intelligence simply does not cut it in politics, never has and never will. The people we call scums of the Earth are where they are because they have an understanding of the pieces fall, they are predictive machines who make moves that destroys people they want out of the way, it’s the subtlest of things that can make or break a campaign or at least that’s the way it used to be. Now America has a man with Epstein ties, rape charges, pedophilia accusations and countless other issues who was given the clear run to become president while competing against an incompetent moron. Now if that doesn’t tell you the state of the country itself, I don’t know what will. This is an indictment on the American public as well but charm and a contrarian attitude goes a long way to brainwashing the increasingly dumber public. Standards aren’t what they used to be and perhaps the times will never recover. Films like the Insider, Michael Clayton, JFK essentially political and corporate thrillers are in my opinion the real litmus test for a writer’s calibre. Most people aren’t “interested” in politics, in corporate drama but if you can make that very topic thoroughly engaging, you are capable of doing a good job in any genre. Some stick to this niche like Oliver Stone and some dabble across genres like Tony Gilroy. From an espionage thriller to a corporate thriller to a full fledged sci-fi drama featuring everything there is to learn about this world in Andor, great writers can do it all. Now I don’t think this is quite in the upper echelons of this particular genre but with the limited filmography in this type, I can only appreciate the the little that comes our way every now and then. “People are scared of you. They don’t understand how you do it and they love you for it. That is the most valuable thing in this business. The ability to win people’s respect by making them mistake their fear for love.” This film is about a campaign consultant in Ryan Gosling as Stephen who believes he is fighting the good battle, who believes he is fighting for the right man in this election and essentially believes in everything this man in George Clooney as Mike stands up to be. Then the betrayal hits; Stephen realises that everything he believed in was wrong, he knows politics is not simple but he doesn’t quite realise how far things can go before they get out of hand. He thought honesty and wit would get him far but it only almost cost him everything. Now everyone is always trying to do the right thing except of course when the tide turns against them. All that morality goes out the window when you realise you have to use that upper hand to get the ball to fall in your court rather than trying to take down everyone and everything with you. The selfish attitude comes in. This film has an insanely stacked cast and while this doesn’t particularly get the best out of them and isn’t quite the complex film that it potentially set out to be, it does deliver on many fronts outside politics and that I think goes over many people’s heads when watching this film or maybe it doesn’t and people just don’t seem to care. Either way, it is not boring for one second and although it loses the steam by the end, it does deliver an enticing drama. I must also mention that if Evan Rachel Wood gave me that look, I’d faint in a fucking heartbeat. That woman is right out of a fairy tale.

emma 🐋

The Ides of March

definitely slow until about halfway but it was good none the less

BelugaJames

The Ides of March

Eh, relatively predictable in its way. PSH is damn good in here. New favorite Marisa Tomei look.