The Ides of March

Well, it was a Ryan Gosling kind of weekend for me, and for Hollywood, it has been a Ryan Gosling kind of summer, turned fall, and it doesn’t look like his reign on Hollywood will be stopping anytime soon. Gosling leads a star-studded cast alongside Paul Giamatti, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei and George Clooney, whom also directed the political thriller.

The Ides of March, this title carrying a double-meaning, is a film adaptation of the successful stage play Farragut North by Beau Willimon. March is the month in which the storyline of the film unfolds, and it is also a nod at the Shakespeare epic, Julius Caeasar which includes the line, “Beware the Ides of March,” where the word ides, meaning the 15^th of the month, is the day Caesar was stabbed to death by members of the Roman Senate. In other words, his death was a conspiracy of his own people against he, their king.

The film tells a very similar tale.  Gosling plays Stephen Meyers, Governor Morris’ (Clooney) very young, very intelligent, very talented, but even more naive press secretary. Repeated in the film, Stephen is quoted as saying that he will do anything, if he believes in it. For Stephen, politics is his life, simply and evidently, and what is more evident is his belief in Morris. As the movie unfolds, Meyers’ talents prove to be more of a curse than a blessing as things become very convoluted when the opposing campaign appears to want Stephen to work for them. From this point on, there is not much more I can say without giving too much of the plot away. I will say this- everything hits the fan when an intern exposes a secret about the Governor that quickly sends Meyers’ career on a downward spiral, and in order to save himself, and his career, his naïveté and quintessential political ideals quickly go astray.

The Ides of March is a gripping political thriller that came at a picture perfect time of the year and in this nation's history when Washington is torn apart politically, and at a time where we are currently heading into what looks to be another nasty, and potentially historical primary, as we gear up for election 2012. I love that with this film I got an inside perspective on what it takes to run a campaign. We only see one side of a campaign through the media. We see either the glitz and the glory of the next American hero, or we see the shame and disgrace of a fallen American hope. What we do not see as voters, and civilians of the United States is the story behind it all and how many lives one public figures downfall, or uprising effects. The Ides of March tells this story, and the details are sure to entice.

Drive

Drive is a neo-noir fairytale starring Ryan Gosling, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. “Neo-noir fairy tale.” So, what is that exactly, you might ask? Noir is the French term for “dark” and film noir is a classic period in Hollywood cinema typically classified by the 1940s-50s where there was a major production influx of crime dramas with low-key black and white cinematography, very dark lighting, often with intense shadow play with the underlay of a dark, gritty script and storyline.  The term neo, is an alternate term for the word new.

As complicated as its classification sounds, I assure you the film, with a very small production budget of a mere 13 million dollars is a very authentic piece of art. Ryan Gosling plays the unnamed, antihero, credited as “Driver” of the film that by day plays a stunt-driver in Los Angeles “for the movies” and by night drives get-away cars for major heists. He meets mother and waitress Irene, played by Carey Mulligan, in his apartment building who just so happens to also be his next-door neighbor. He ends up getting heavily involved with Irene, and even ends up taking on  a father-figure role to her son, whose biological father happens to be in prison. About midway through the film, the father is released from prison, and finds himself in trouble from a left over debt he owed before he was incarcerated. From this point on, the plot takes one turn after another and you find yourself on a raw, pulse-pounding, very  twisted, and very bloody ride from one scene to the next. Gosling is an antihero and on his journey to save the woman he loves, and the son he has grown a delusional attachment to, he wreaks havoc and anarchy on everything within his path.

The film is a fairytale both in cinematic explication and in storyline. Absurd occurrences happen to this “Driver.” He has extraordinary capabilities as a driver but seemingly ordinary humanistic characteristics, making you both love him and be very afraid of him, all at the same time. Although few words are spoken between the two of them, and even fewer displays of affection, the love and intrigue between Gosling and Mulligan's characters is apparent.

This film, unlike Transformers, unlike The Help, and even unlike The Social Network and Inception, is about the art, and this film is much more about the art than the storyline. By "art," I mean the cinematic elements that go into filmmaking-the logistics, the use of visual technique to evoke certain feelings such as lighting, camera angle, sound, etc. This film makes great use of such elements. It is primarily shot through lighting with red and yellow undertones with red illuminating the dark, murderous and masochistic occurrences within the plot, and with yellow bringing attention to such thematics as a life of decay, and disease as a result of a life of crime and corruption.  The film is very light on dialogue. Most of the storyline is captivated by up-tempo, seemingly 1980’s inspired, highly-synthesized pop music. The film would not be the unique work that it is without the music. Unlike most films, where music simply adds to the overall effect of the movie experience, both music and cinematography work together in Drive to create a truly special cinema event.

Ryan Gosling has yet to disappoint. He is 30 years old and has yet to do a piece of work that is not on some level incredibly meaningful, incredibly deep, or enchantingly dark. Movies like Drive, actors like Ryan Gosling, and actresses like Carey Mulligan make me extremely excited about the future of movie making. These are not good, but great young actors. All of this, in combination with such a visionary like Nicolas Winding Refn doing extraordinary work behind the camera, I sleep well knowing that the future of the movies is in good hands.