Yesterday we got our first look at Ides of March, along with more than a dozen other films, when it was added to the lineup for this year's Toronto International Film Festival. The latest directorial effort from George Clooney, Ides of March stars Ryan Gosling as the frazzled press secretary for a Presidential contender-- a contender with so much charm, gravitas and political savvy that he pretty much has to be played by Clooney himself. The job of a press secretary is to pretty much fuse your personality with the candidate's, and that's definitely the message coming across in the film's first poster, which debuted today at ET Online. You can see it below.


Yes, I know it's not shaped like a usual poster. Presumably the middle section is what we'll be seeing in actual theaters, but since most people see posters online these days anyway, it kind of makes sense for them to tweak the usual format. The blurriness on the sides makes my head hurt a little-- maybe the problem of someone with bad eyesight who's worn one too many pairs of ill-fitting glasses-- but I like the metaphorical nod to the blurriness of political campaigns, the way the focused center reflects Gosling's laserlike gaze at the audience, matching Clooneys's similar face on the cover of Time. It's a striking image that gets the faces of the two stars on the poster without falling into the usual generic tropes of movie posters. I'm a fan, and will probably like it even better when looking at a version that doesn't make me a little seasick on the sides.