Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Dirty tricks stand to soil an ambitious young press spokesman's idealism in a cutthroat presidential campaign where 'victory' is relative.
The Ides of March is elevated almost entirely by its exceptional ensemble cast — Gosling, Clooney, Hoffman, and Giamatti all deliver sharp, credible performances in a film about political cynicism. The plot follows a fairly well-worn trajectory of idealism-to-disillusionment in American politics, hitting expected beats without surprising the audience. Cinematography is competent and polished but unremarkable. Novelty suffers because the 'corruption of the naive political operative' story has been told many times before, and this iteration offers little that feels singular or fresh. The ending is serviceable and thematically coherent but somewhat predictable given where the story leads.