‘Ides of March’ Trailer Recalls Heady Time When Politics Mattered
Watching the trailer for "The Ides of March," a film that doesn't come out until December, honestly made us nostalgic, even though the events in the film theoretically haven't happened yet.
The political thriller stars Ryan Gosling as an idealistic and talented political consultant working for an insurgent Presidential candidate played by George Clooney (who co-wrote and directed the film) clearly with all kinds of Obama echos. Gosling jousts with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti and Marisa Tomei over his political future, damaging secrets, situational ethics and loyalty toward one's friends and candidate, and it all looks compelling and thrilling and about 50 years old.
When you look toward Washington right now, in this endlessly depressing debt ceiling "debate," you can only look at a film like this -- with its debates about Doing The Right Thing, with its already quaint discussion of "candidates who matter," with its glimpse into a world in which politics had defined rules and personalities and codes -- with warm remembrances of a time when such discussions were even relevant. Politics, even in the months since this movie was filmed, have devolved into high schools playing dressup, playground taunts based in basic, reflexive contrarianism. Politics as a place to believe, as a way to change the world? How three months ago of you. This film looks terrific, but it also looks like watching a film about a bunch of people desperately concerned with who builds a better VCR.
