Vice

Vice is the Dick Cheney biography directed by Adam McKay who also directed The Big Short. It shows Cheney's ascension from expelled college drunk to Vice President of the United States. 

The storytelling was pretty powerful. There were things unveiled that I had no idea about. I never realized how much control Cheney had during the Bush presidency nor how much he was involved in orchestrating the Iraq war and all of its humanitarian crimes. This movie did a great job of portraying the former VP in a way where you could see all of his conniving and manipulating tactics to the point where you almost feel bad for former President Bush.

The acting from Christian Bale, as the central character, was quite impressive. I would not have been mad if he won the Best Actor Oscar. His mannerisms, the makeup, hair and costumes were all on point. Amy Adams, who portrayed Cheney’s wife, was also great. She was unrecognizable and did a masterful job of portraying a king maker of sorts. Additionally, Steve Carell was a surprising yet very entertaining Donald Rumsfeld. I thought he did a really great job bringing the humor to this dark satirical dramity (dramatic comedy). On the more disappointing end of the casting, I was confused as to why Sam Rockwell was cast as George W. Bush. He didn’t look anything like him, he was too small and couldn’t capture his voice or his essence. The way he portrayed him was generic, I felt like his acting could have been any random person. Perhaps it was partially the makeup departments’ fault, who focused so much on Bale & Adams that he was just swept him under the rug.

The cinematography and specifically the editing were weird and didn’t make much sense at times. As a joke, the director randomly added end credits in the middle of the movie, but it went a little too long and in the end wasn't very funny. Additionally, I wasn’t a huge fan of the choice to include a narrator throughout the film. I think the film would have been better if it was more of a straight forward story telling.

With all that said, I still felt like the movie was good. Not Best Picture at the Oscars good nor good enough to catch in theaters but good enough to watch from home. I found it to be quite eye opening and informative. It just needed better editing and a couple of re-casts.