The Ides of March (2011)

Seen on December 13th, 2011

An idealistic staffer for a presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail. [imdb]

Nominated for 1 Oscar:

Best Adapted Screenplay

I was really hoping this film won't get nominated for anything, so that I won't have to write about it and justify the rating I'm about to give it. I know I stand alone here and I need to defend myself, but to me this is by far the worst Not-so-obviously-awful film of the year; it was a failure, a mass of clichés thrown in together and made up to look like something interesting and new.

I rolled my eyes at the cheating candidate theme, Marisa Tomei gives one of her most boring, clichéd performances in a stupid role, the writing is just silly, either completely predictable (the suicide) or filled with dialogue that would never happen (the confrontation). I blame Clooney for this: for writing a lazy screenplay and directing it in a lazy way. Ryan is fine, Philip Seymour Hoffman is fine, but this film annoyed me a lot.

My rating for the film: 4/10. Clooney, put some effort into it the next time!