the fresh films reviews

S I N C E   1 9 9 7










 

Vice (2018)

Director:
Adam McKay
COUNTRY
USA
GENRE
Biographical/Political/Comedy
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Vice
RUNNING TIME
132 minutes
Producer:
Brad Pitt
Dede Gardner
Jeremy Kleiner
Kevin J. Messick
Will Ferrell
Adam McKay
Screenwriter:
Adam McKay


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Dick Cheney Christian Bale ½
Lynne Cheney Amy Adams ½
Donald Rumsfeld Steve Carell ½
George W. Bush Sam Rockwell
Colin Powell Tyler Perry
Mary Cheney Alison Pill
Liz Cheney Lily Rabe
Paul Wolfowitz Eddie Marsan
Scooter Libby Justin Kirk
Condoleezza Rice LisaGay Hamilton
Kurt, the narrator Jesse Plemons
Gerald Ford Bill Camp
David Addington Don McManus
Wayne Vincent Shea Whigham

 

Review

Vice, which is Adam McKay's follow-up to The Big Short, is not about a police division, but rather about the life and times of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. It's a fairly standard biopic in form, spiced up with some stylistic touches which make an otherwise dry account about political positioning and administrative work quite entertaining. However, it also makes the film more akin to political satires in the vein of Wag the Dog than to the more serious biopic genre. The problem this choice of angle poses is that while it gives the film more zest, it also casts a shadow on whether the filmmakers have been unbiased enough in their work. Because Cheney and his family are portrayed in such an unsympathetic manner here that the events unfolding are almost unbelievable the way that they are presented. Vice paints a caricatured picture of modern politics, which may sound like a pleonasm in and of itself, but it arguably would have been meritable for McKay to be a little more subtle in his approach. The result would probably also be a less divisive movie, if that is something anyone making a political film would be interested in achieving in today's climate. Nevertheless, there still is a fun and clever movie somewhere inside these 132 minutes, not least thanks to Christian Bale's eerily accurate imitation of Cheney and Amy Adams' horror-film-like portrayal of Cheney's wife Lynne.

Copyright © 13.05.2019 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

[BACK TO INDEX]

[HAVE YOUR SAY]