The Ides of March

A great first movie of 2026. It only gets a 3 because there’s nothing extremely gripping in here for a movie. I’m in the habit of not looking up movies before I watch them. My wife suggested this and afterwards told me that it was adapted from a stage-play whereby the narrative is driven by character dialogue.

This means nothing really happens outside of pivotal discussions between 2-3 people, which makes total sense for a story meant to be told on the stage. A stellar cast, everyone pulling out decent performances. I think this would be much better as a play than a movie. That said, I enjoyed it enough.

A political movie which was every bit what one would (or should) expect from a movie about politics, ending in a turn to pessimism, accepting all its flaws. This is not a movie about great characters or character turn around. No one is redeeming or seeks redemption.