First Take: Vice- insert comparison to present day politics here

SYNOPSIS:

The story of Dick Cheney, an unassuming bureaucratic Washington insider, who quietly wielded immense power as Vice President to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that we still feel today.

This ain’t a musical. It just about passes as a comedy. But this feels like an Adam McKay film alright. We’re gonna try and review this without bringing the political side into things- we focus solely on the films and whether they’re good or not here on this blog- but something just didn’t sit right with the latest work from the director of The Big Short.

McKay once again writes and directs this one in a similar manner to his work on The Big Short, taking a series of true events and making it into a 2 hour 12 minute film that has its ups and downs. Sure, the pacing is a little bit hit/miss, but what McKay’s script does is tell the story in a pretty coherent manner, which a lot of American critics have seen as a parody of this kind of film- it is really unconventional in a lot of ways, even going as far as to run a fake end credit roll just before the really brutal elements of the film kick in. Behind the camera is Greig Fraser, who does a brilliant job shooting the film, and Nicholas Britell provides a decent score, but the style of the film left a lot to be desired.

Performance wise, this is where the film excels. Christian Bale is once again able to make is work as Cheney feel believable, and alongside Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Alison Pill, Eddie Marsan, Jesse Plemons and many others, this cast are able to turn in some brilliant work that makes the moral issues of the film a minor point- this is truly a film made for the awards voters rather than a mainstream audience, and sure, it has its moments, but for the audience at last night’s Screen Unseen, parts of it got too real, too quickly.

THE VERDICT

Vice is a pretty strong film for our American friends. But it just got lost in translation for us Brits, and for a Screen Unseen film, it was divisive alright. It’s a decent film, but given the timing of its release, it might get lost in the shuffle with other awards films.

RATING: 4/5