Vice (2018)

Amy, Jack, and I loved this satirical bio-pic of Dick Cheney, though it made us liberals sigh and groan, watching the VP and his wife control the country with politics and goals so divergent from our own.

Christian Bale (last blogged, and Oscar-nominated, for The Big Short) completely disappears into the role of Cheney, with his much-reviewed 45 pound weight gain and top-notch hair and makeup. As his wife Lynne, Amy Adams (most recently in these pages for Nocturnal Animals) brings passion and power to the woman behind the man who, in later times, might have become influential in her own right. Sam Rockwell's (last in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri for which he won his first Oscar) George W. Bush and Steve Carell's (most recently in Beautiful Boy) Donald Rumsfeld are terrific as well, with hair, makeup, voice inflection, and even humor. It's a huge cast, but they are the highlights.

Director/writer Adam McKay (won his first Oscar for co-writing The Big Short and was nominated for directing it) is nominated for Golden Globes directing and writing here, among the picture's six Globe nominations--Bale and Adams are also nominated for SAG awards. See my list here. I predict a Best Makeup Oscar nomination as well.

Bale studied up on heart disease for the role. So when McKay had a mild heart attack during post production, he remembered Bale's method acting which may have saved his life (watch this short video). Black and white footage of McKay's heart stent surgery is in this movie--he calls it his cameo.

The music by Nicholas Britell (last blogged for Battle of the Sexes) can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music. I don't remember the songs, other than America from West Side Story playing over the credits (here's a clip from the WSS movie).

Another bit of trivia is that a musical number was produced and shot but eventually cut because it didn't work with the narrative.

There's a very funny "crazy credits" gag, too, before America, reminding us that this is a satire, even though so much of it is true (the gag is clearly not). And another one at the very end, so don't rush out before the movie is completely over.

The cinematography by Greig Fraser (after his Oscar nomination for Lion he shot Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) may cause Motion-Picture-Motion-Sickness or MPMS (see my running list here) in sensitive people. I think. I have been bingeing movies this week and they're beginning to run together.

We three saw this in a matinee on Christmas day (the 14th year of this particular family tradition), which was opening day in this case. Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are now averaging 64 and 57%, respectively.