'The Ides of March'

Saw it Friday night.

I enjoyed it, although a number of things about the film tell me more about director and star George Clooney than about politics. Clooney's character is Mike Morris, a governor of Pennsylvania running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Morris is portrayed as a matter-of-fact progressive, proclaiming his unabashed secularism. He says his only religion is "the Constitution" and within ten days of taking office he'll pass legislation putting internal combustion engines on a bee line to extinction. It's really eye-rolling stuff. Morris repeats the mantra that he wants to make America great again. The closest model is Bill Clinton in 1992, and not just with echoes of economic nationalism. Morris is not the model of propriety we find out, in a plot twist that's key to the entire show. For me it was the movie's Machiavellian power games that ring true, and I'd recommend it in that sense, and for the crisp cinematography, solid acting, and for bringing things toward the climax relatively quickly. In any case, I'm avoiding plot spoilers here, so let me hand it over to A.O. Scott for some more background: "Estranged Bedfellows." And also, Kenneth Turan, "Movie review: 'The Ides of March'." If you're out to the movies this next week you might give this film a go.