Get Your Reps In: Watch Five Cautionary Tales That Offer a Timeless Warning to Beware the Ides of March

March 15 marks the 74th day of the Roman calendar, and you know what that means…vengeance! Betrayal! The assassination of Julius Caesar!

By Mia Vicino

While local rep theaters are out of commission, we'll be putting together weekly watchlists of films readily available to stream. March 15 marks the 74th day of the Roman calendar, and you know what that means…vengeance! Betrayal! The assassination of Julius Caesar! These five cautionary tales offer a timeless warning to beware the Ides of March.


The Ides of March (2011)

Ryan Gosling and George Clooney star in this tense political drama, written and directed by Clooney himself. When a junior campaign manager (Gosling) for the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania (Clooney) discovers a potentially career-ending secret about his boss, he grapples with maintaining his integrity in the face of immorality. Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

The opening chapter of the great Park Chan-wook's highly acclaimed Vengeance Trilogy centers on a deaf factory worker who kidnaps a little girl in order to procure a ransom large enough to pay for his sister's kidney transplant. This sets the girl's father (Parasite's Song Kang-ho) on a path to seek revenge. Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, Hoopla, Mubi, Pluto, Tubi, Vudu.


Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)

The final installment of Park's Vengeance Trilogy is about a woman falsely convicted of murdering a 6-year-old boy. After serving years in prison for a crime she didn't commit, she's now determined to inflict her own brand of vigilante justice against the real murderer. Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, Kanopy, Mubi, Shudder, Pluto, Tubi.


The Departed (2006)

Loosely based on the real-life Boston Winter Hill Gang, Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning gangster epic tells the tale of two moles: one planted in the police by the Irish Mob (Matt Damon) and one planted in the Irish Mob by the police (Leonardo DiCaprio). Co-starring Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg and a literal rat. Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Google Play, HBO Max, iTunes, Netflix, Vudu, YouTube.


Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Quentin Tarantino's feature-length directorial debut is one of the most influential crime flicks for freshman film majors everywhere. When its diamond heist goes awry, a group of gangsters (Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen) holes up in an abandoned warehouse to try to deduce who ratted. Betrayal, deception and bloody violence ensue. Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, fuboTV, Google Play, HBO Max, Hulu, iTunes, Showtime, Sling TV, Vudu, YouTube

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