5/20/2023 0 Comments Vice movie![]() ![]() Todd VanDerWerff: I think I’m just enough older than you that I had started to question conservative policies in earnest early in the George W. How would you characterize your reaction? What feeling did you leave the theater with? So it’s interesting that we came away with such different perspectives. What I’m trying to say is, I think we’re both the target audience for this movie. We’ve both gotten older and realized that history is always more complex than it seems when you’re young. We’re both old enough to remember both Bush administrations clearly. Now, the two of us are similar in many ways: We were both raised in pretty conservative homes, probably ones that voted Republican. But I can’t figure out what Vice’s motives are, or what we’re meant to take away from the film - and I think some of the fault falls in McKay’s lap. Adam McKay has proved in the past he can skewer his targets with gusto (I’m a big fan of The Big Short). Vice is definitely angry, and it aims its barbs at Cheney and both Bush administrations. But to me, it felt shoddily made and directionless. And I know you liked it much better than I did. Annapurna Pictures Two critics see a movie - with very different resultsĪlissa Wilkinson: Todd, I hated this movie, in a way I’ve hated few movies this year. (Moderate spoilers for the movie follow.) The Bushes and the Cheneys (played by Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Sam Rockwell, and Andrea Wright) in Adam McKay’s Vice. So instead of just taking it on myself, I thought the best way to approach the film - in the spirit of conversation and bipartisanship sorely lacking in Washington, partly thanks to the very events chronicled in Vice - would be to have a conversation with Todd about the movie, seeing if we could reconcile our two opinions, or at least help show what critics both like and hate about Vice.Ībove are our respective ratings below is our conversation. That was the case with Vice, when I (Alissa Wilkinson) returned from my recent screening, frustrated and disappointed, and my colleague Todd VanDerWerff said he’d liked the movie. Vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-markĪs it happens, Vox’s critics often disagree about movies (though only rarely do we come to blows). But there are other ideas at play here too. And certainly, the movie is not an attempt to convert anyone to a new way of thinking the audience for this sort of film is likely already sympathetic to the most obvious of McKay’s theses, which is that Dick Cheney is a heartless guy. Watching Vice can feel like watching a highlight reel from the late 20th and early 21st century, except not in a good way. The list goes on and on and on, with some folks just walking through scenes briefly like ghosts from the past. But there’s a parade of familiar supporting characters too, including Colin Powell (Tyler Perry), Scooter Libby (Justin Kirk), and Condoleezza Rice (LisaGay Hamilton), as well as many senators, Congress members, Cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, and others. Christian Bale plays Cheney, and he - along with Amy Adams as Cheney’s wife Lynne, Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld, and Sam Rockwell as George W. Vice is different, perhaps because everyone in it was a public figure and is portrayed by some famous actor. But it was certainly a funny, angry film that offered an inside look at a complicated issue, and made a persuasive argument that left the audience steaming. That movie was also met with divided critical opinions. ![]() Of McKay’s body of work, Vice has a lot in common with his previous film, 2015’s The Big Short, which was based on a book by journalist Michael Lewis about four men who saw the housing crisis looming and bet against the market. Early reviews from critics were sharply divided between those who loved the film and those who despised it - as well as plenty who gave it mixed reviews. Few movies in 2018 have been more divisive than Vice, writer-director Adam McKay’s tale of the modern Republican Party as concentrated in the person of former Vice President Dick Cheney. | Inherent Vice | Movies (function(w,d,s,l,i). ![]()
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