Dick Cheney is fascinating \u2013\u00a0in the morbid way that villainous figures throughout history almost always are. But is George W. Bush\u2019s former vice president compelling enough to serve as the subject of a darkly comedic biopic that runs over two hours long? Filmmaker Adam McKay certainly thinks so, though <\/span>Vice <\/i><\/strong>\u2013 his follow-up to the critically acclaimed <\/span>The Big Short<\/span><\/i> \u2013 struggles to justify its existence with a rather tepid examination of one of the greatest villains in modern American politics. <\/span><\/p>\n Christian Bale is inarguably fantastic as Cheney in the film, which traces the former VP\u2019s life from his time as a drunken blue collar ne\u2019er-do-well to his two terms as Bush\u2019s second-in-command. As <\/span>Vice<\/span><\/i> tells it \u2013\u00a0in case you\u2019ve already forgotten this all-too-recent bit of history \u2013\u00a0Cheney was essentially calling all the shots. With the support of his ambitious wife, Lynne (Amy Adams), Cheney\u2019s primary motivation in the White House was to obtain as much power as possible \u2013\u00a0even more than the president himself. 9\/11 provided a horrible, perfect opportunity for Cheney to do just that, and over the next few years he was largely responsible for the torture of prisoners and the needless invasion of Iraq. But you know all of that, which is what makes the existence of McKay\u2019s film feel so\u2026 bizarre. <\/span><\/p>\n In many ways, <\/span>Vice<\/span><\/i> operates much like <\/span>The Big Short<\/span><\/i>. McKay seems to have found some new cinematic niche, making darkly satirical retellings of recent historical events involving horrible white men in positions of power. They\u2019re smart enough to be a step above <\/span>Modern American History for Idiots<\/span><\/i>, but they aren\u2019t exactly far off. The \u201ctoo soon\u201d response has become something of a cliched joke, but exploring the life of Dick Cheney less than 10 years after he lorded over the White House feels, well, <\/span>too soon<\/span><\/i>. And not because it\u2019s offensive or in poor taste; it\u2019s just that the recurring thought one has while watching <\/span>Vice<\/span><\/i> is, <\/span>yeah<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>we know<\/span><\/i>. If McKay\u2019s target audience were younger millennials or Generation Z, then his hand-holding through recent history \u2013\u00a0with an almost <\/span>too<\/span><\/i> friendly wink and a nudge \u2013\u00a0might seem more productive. As it stands, <\/span>Vice <\/span><\/i>is a humorous <\/span>CliffsNotes <\/span>for the Bush administration featuring a cast <\/span>Drunk History<\/span><\/i> could never afford.<\/span><\/p>\n And it\u2019s a very good cast! Adams is stellar as Lynne Cheney, a character arguably more complex and fascinating than the weirdly secretive Dick she married. While Dick was pulling W\u2019s strings, Lynne was puppeteering her husband \u2013 or so it seems. That\u2019s particularly interesting when their daughters \u2013\u00a0Mary (Lily Rabe) and Liz (Alison Pill) \u2013\u00a0enter the picture. It becomes increasingly disturbing after Liz comes out to her parents, as viewers await the inevitable moment when Liz voices her objection to gay marriage while running for office, effectively destroying Mary. Unfortunately, given how closely-guarded Dick Cheney was, there isn\u2019t much that the public knows about his personal life, and much of these scenes feel speculative at best. Some critics have derided McKay for painting too sympathetic a picture of Cheney; if anything, McKay is empathetic toward Cheney\u2019s family. Of the man himself, McKay takes a view similar to that of a satirical <\/span>New Yorker<\/span><\/i> cartoon. Cheney is Darth Vader (Bale even nails the heavy breathing), only if Vader were sort of a bumbling drunk who stumbled upon a political line of work by chance. McKay\u2019s version of Cheney wasn\u2019t politically-minded, per se; he just wanted <\/span>power<\/span><\/i>. And the most of it he could get.<\/span><\/p>\n Vice<\/span><\/i>\u2019s remaining cast members are all well-suited to the material and turn in fine work: Steve Carell is perfectly narcissistic and slimy as Donald Rumsfeld. Sam Rockwell delivers a surprisingly straightforward performance as Dubya, depicting him not as an imbecile, but as someone who wasn\u2019t exactly up to the task at hand (fans of the actor\u2019s proclivity for dancing will be disappointed). Tyler Perry makes for one heck of a Colin Powell, and continues to prove that he might be a better actor than we all thought. But however enjoyable it is to watch all of these well-known actors play these real-life people, <\/span>Vice<\/span><\/i> can\u2019t help but feel like a more expensive, feature-length version of an <\/span>SNL<\/span><\/i> cold opening \u2013\u00a0only <\/span>slightly<\/span><\/i> less silly. <\/span><\/p>\n In a recent tweet<\/a>, film critic David Ehrlich said, \u201cAdam McKay was an \u2018important\u2019 filmmaker until the moment when he started trying to become one.\u201d That\u2019s the most accurate description of McKay\u2019s career trajectory, which is reminiscent of David O. Russell \u2013\u00a0another filmmaker who made far more interesting movies before he decided to rebrand himself as Diet Scorsese and pursue a few Oscars. Not for nothing, Russell\u2019s prestige-chasing <\/span>American Hustle<\/span><\/i> also starred Amy Adams and a nearly unrecognizable and overweight Christian Bale. It\u2019s never too late to change course.<\/span><\/p>\n Dick Cheney is fascinating \u2013\u00a0in the morbid way that villainous figures throughout history almost always are. But is George W. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":553,"featured_media":10929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-movie-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Grade: C-<\/span><\/h3>\n
2 hrs., 10 min.; rated R for\u00a0language and some violent images<\/em><\/h5>\n
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