Adam McKay has always been an entertaining filmmaker to me. Known mostly for making Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly comedies (Anchorman 1 and 2, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, The Other Guys, Get Hard), he took a an interesting turn to more serious topics when he released The Big Short in 2015, winning the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a nomination for that year’s Best Picture award. Vice follows in that vein. Serious topic, but a movie definitely not in the Drama category.
Vice is the story of the truly unlikely rise of Dick Cheney, portrayed just absolutely magnificently by Christian Bale, from a Wyoming “ne’er do well”, to Washington intern, the White House, several heart attacks, until eventually, the vice presidency.
In casting Christian Bale as Cheney, McKay was able to get an actor who was able to bring to life what the the real life character was described to be; a deep thinking, strategic, and manipulative political operative. In this movie, Dick Cheney comes off at times as a soft spoken loyal assistant to Steve Carell’s Donald Rumsfeld early in his career, to a master manipulator when dealing with Sam Rockwell’s naive and inept George W. Bush when offered the role of VPOTUS. Amy Adams puts in a stellar performance as Mrs Cheney, the strong, sometimes pushy, but always supportive wife, who probably in a different time would’ve run for office herself.
Adam McKay’s movies always make me feel smarter just by having seen it. Even if I don’t understand some of the asides to explain stuff, I’m always entertained and that’s enough most of the time. From Margot Robbie explaining sub-prime mortgages in a bubble bath, to Selena Gomez explaining synthetic CDO (I wasn’t really able to keep up), Vice has got a few amusing, and interesting asides as well.
The asides however betray a seriousness in the situations we are watching. I wonder if the funny asides (there’s a great bit with the narrator, but I won’t spoil it for you) distract and detract from the gravity of the situation. This is a man who had shot a member of his own party in the face while on a hunting trip, only for the victim to apologise in public for having inconvenienced the Vice President. By being shot. In the face. By the Vice President.
Did Cheney and his inner circle really think that little about skirting the Geneva convention? Was it always his plan to assume more power in his position as Vice President than any other Vice President in the past, and to take that power away from the President himself? We’ll never know, but this movie makes the case that it was part of his plan, that it was easy, and that Dick Cheney certainly felt that it was the right thing to do.
Vice certainly is a good watch for any number of reasons; the performances are excellent and garnered 4 Academy nominations (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director) at the Oscars in 2019. It is also a very entertaining watch, especially if you aren’t interested or don’t know about these stories and only take it as a piece of fiction. However, the best way to watch this movie is as a piece of political satire; It is based on true events, but of course, may not be how it actually happened. We will never how those conversations went, but what we do know, is that a lot of what happened, happened.
Also, stay past the first round of credits. There is a little post credit sting that if anything, is probably how Adam McKay really feels about movie audiences in the 21st century and how his movie will be received.