Vice

My theory on the truth - which often extends into politics - is that the answer, the true truth, is always somewhere in the middle. 

Somewhere in the middle between one person said, another person said. Somewhere in the middle between Left or Right. Conservative or Democrat. Sometimes that "middle" may be closer to one side than the other, but in general I think it's safe to say that most people have agendas when they tell a story. 

Vice, Adam McKay's follow up to the sensational and highly-entertaining The Big Short is most certainly "one side of the story" and it's often much to the detriment of the film (more on that later). 

Further than any politics are concerned however, Vice is just a mess of a film in many, many ways. Oddly, most of the things that made The Big Short so memorable, instructive, and fun are worthless or used to diluted affect in Vice. 

The combined effect of both the heavily-leaning view on political figures and parties and a messy execution result in the movie equivalent of one of your semi-drunk uncles (from either side of the political spectrum, mind you) yelling about politics at the family dinner table. Hey! I guess timing Vice around the holidays was a good idea after all!

I never try to get heavily political on this site because that's honestly not what it's for. To put it simply, Vice will likely be praised by the Left and absolutely eviscerated by the Right because it is so heavily leaning on one side of the political spectrum. I found that my own politics were sometimes clouding my opinion - and those are areas of which I'll keep to myself - but other elements of Vice are so decidedly obvious that they're hard to ignore. Key example? A handful of instances of playing "villainous" orchestral scores when a Republican is on screen and "heroic" themes when a Democrat is on screen. Regardless of your political leanings, it's an obvious alignment that I would rather have left out of my films for the most part. I wouldn't go so far as to call Vice "propaganda", but the fact that it crossed my mind at a few points speaks volumes by itself. What's possibly the most troubling after all of this "investigation" into the previous Vice President of the United States is, outside of some of his beginning career moves, I feel like I don't know him much more at all. I don't feel like there was much that I genuinely learned, and even less that I learned that wasn't through a specific-colored lens.

Wow. Michael Scott sure has grown up...

We didn't get a scene of Sam Rockwell as
George W. dancing in this film. Fail.

What doesn't help Vice's matters is that it comes off disorganized, almost as if it has ADD. For The Big Short this seemed to work with the "craziness" of wallstreet and often led to funny 4th-wall-breaking segments like Margot Robbie explaining things to us in a tub. In Vice, the schtick doesn't work all that great (aside from a consistent narration subplot by Jesse Plemons) and at times the films is so hyper-edited that you have no idea if what's going on should be funny, depressing, or making some kind of point. The first 10 minutes alone is a perfect example of this mess as we start with a drunk driving Dick Cheney in Wyoming, cut to the day of 9/11, cut back to the bar fight that got him drunk driving, and then cut back to him drunk driving and being pulled over. It's sporadic and, with the heavily leaning political agenda, it makes the film again appear like your angry uncle yelling about politics over the holidays. 

Once you realize both of those significant issues with the film, what's left is a semi-enjoyable movie with some of the year's best performances. Neither of those aforementioned issues utterly ruin the film (though if you're heavily Right leaning, they will) and it's still a rather enjoyable and interesting film, particularly to see the relationships between Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, etc. The entirety of the supporting cast does great work and I enjoyed Sam Rockwell as George W.. Steve Carell, Jesse Plemons, Amy Adams, Tyler Perry (yes, that Tyler Perry), and others offer memorable support to a nearly unrecognizable Christian Bale. Once again he's gone and added a bunch of weight for a role (there has to be a point at which that's awful for your body right?) but his intonation, delivery, and small quirks as Cheney are spot-on. For the most part nearly everyone else is really good in their roles, but it's obvious they're an actor playing someone. For Bale's Cheney I often lost the blurry line between what was him and what was actually Cheney because they look and act so damn similar. 

Wait, but, is that Dick Cheney?

Vice is unfortunately one of the bigger disappointments of the year. Other than it's fun, spot-on performances, it's a substantial step down from its predecessor in terms of wit, organization, and facts vs. opinionated facts. I think there could have been a good film here, but too many things got in the way and instead we're left - much as many are during the Holidays - awkwardly leaving the table as that one uncle rambles on and on about their far-something view of politics. 

CONS

• Attempts the same methodology that gave The Big Short so much life. It mostly fails here and comes across as disorganization throughout the entirety of the film
• Leans so heavily to the left that it's almost hard to take it seriously. I knew to a certain extent going in that this was designed as a "take-down" of sorts, but again, "propaganda" shouldn't be a thought that comes to mind while I'm watching this
• Hyper edited at times. Feels like the film has ADD in a few places and I could notice my audiences discomfort with it
• Don't feel like I actually learned much about Cheney from start to finish
• Didn't find it all that funny and several of the jokes don't land

PROS

• Is decently entertaining for the majority of its length
• Some of the "wild" bits do work or get a laugh
• Bale's performance is pretty incredible given all he had to do to create it. Sometimes you lose Bale in it and are actually seeing Cheney
• Awesome supporting cast that only pale in comparison because Bale is so great
• Can be interesting at times, particularly to see some of the relationships Cheney had in his life

Rath's Review Score | 6/10