Vice

2018 political biopic

Rating: 13/20 (Jen: 10/20)

Plot: Details the rise of Dick Cheney, arguably the most dangerous vice president in American history.

Well, that wasn't exactly subtle. The irreverent spins and the catchy gimmicks could cause on to criticize this for having some tone issues. If you've ever imagined what it would be like if Michael Moore ever made a political biopic about somebody he doesn't respect, you've probably imagined something similar to this. Bouncing needlessly from the recent past when Cheney is the president of the United States to the more distant past and several spots in between, Vice really has some focusing issues, too. You feel like you're trying out lenses with an ophthalmologist, getting a fuzzy picture of who this guy was as well as the guys he was surrounding himself with but never seeing anything 100% clearly. I was so focused on the filmmaking and McKay's tricks that it really distracted me, and as a piece of satire or an examination of this period of recent American history and this guy at the center of it all, it felt like hundreds of tiny paper cuts instead of anything that really leaves a mark.

Christian Bale, with the help of make-up artists and a lot of cheeseburgers, transforms himself into this character. It's entirely possible to forget that this is Bale or any other actor and not Dick Cheney lampooning himself on the screen. Sure he leans heavily on a few quirks (don't play a drinking games with the "Umms" in this) and doesn't give the character much depth, but part of the point is that this guy is supposed to be a bit of a mystery. Sam Rockwell plays W., a kind of alternate-reality W. who fades into the background mostly. That's also part of the point. Steve Carell is Donald Rumsfeld, a guy I had nearly forgotten existed. I never did understand what that guy did, and Vice definitely clears that up. Oh, and Amy Adams is in this, too, probably because she has to be in everything that comes out. Anybody who lived during this time will recognize other faces from this, a really dark time in American history that isn't actually all that darker than most of the other times in American history.

I hope Adam McKay never makes a cheeky Holocaust movie.