Movie Review: Vice

Vice *** / *****

Directed by: Adam McKay.

Written by: Adam McKay.

Starring: Christian Bale (Dick Cheney), Amy Adams (Lynne Cheney), Steve Carell (Donald Rumsfeld), Sam Rockwell (George W. Bush), Jesse Plemons (Narrator), Shea Whigham (Wayne Vincent), Alison Pill (Mary Cheney), Lily Rabe (Liz Cheney), Eddie Marsan (Paul Wolfowitz), Tyler Perry (Colin Powell), Justin Kirk (Scooter Libby), Bill Camp (Gerald Ford), Fay Masterson (Edna Vincent), LisaGay Hamilton (Condoleezza Rice).

 

Watching Vice was an odd experience for me. From the start, I admired Christian Bale’s performance as Dick Cheney – he nails the mannerisms and speech pattern, his walk and everything exterior about the man. I also think he attempts – as much as the film will let him – to understand Cheney, and get under his skin. The movie really isn’t interested in that though – it wants to skim the surface of Cheney’s life, and essentially take a hatchet to Cheney’s legacy. It doesn’t seem too interested in why Cheney did anything that he did – just what he did. Written and directed by Adam McKay the film is smug in the extreme – seeming to think it’s being clever, when it’s really more annoying than anything. I didn’t like McKay’s approach here – which, oddly, made me think it was treating Cheney (whose politics I despise) unfairly. I didn’t really like Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush (sorry, but if you’re going to go the Bush was clueless route, why didn’t McKay go whole hog and get the Producer of this film – Will Ferrell – to bring his Bush out of retirement). And the whole framing device of Jesse Plemons narrating the story without telling us who he is until the end was terribly misguided. And yet. And yet, I cannot dismiss the film. It’s infuriating and smug. But perhaps that’s the point? It sticks with you though – that’s for sure.

 

What we really didn’t need in Vice though is the opening segment of the movie, about Cheney’s wild younger days – when he was thrown out of college for drinking, and gathered a few DUI, before his future wife, Lynne (Amy Adams) straightens him out. Or really the scenes of him as a congressional aide to Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell) where it becomes clear that they don’t actually believe in much of anything except power for the sake of power. The scenes are of some interest if you know nothing about Cheney’s time before becoming VP – but for the most part, it’s all rather paint by numbers stuff – and lacks the cleverness that McKay can bring.

 

The reason you show up for the movie is to see the Bush years – and the movie is both more interesting in this part, and also more annoyingly smug. The movie makes it clear that Cheney saw an opportunity to essentially become President without actually having to win an election. The movie views Bush as an idiot, who doesn’t even realize that Cheney is essentially offering to do anything worth doing as President away from him – and also able to manipulate the President with a short whisper in his ear. It’s such an easy and cheap narrative that I’m surprised McKay went with it at all. Surprisingly, Oliver Stone’s underrated W. thinks more highly of Bush than Vice does – that movie I think came closer than anything else to capturing George W. Bush – an average man, from a famous family, who gets in way over his head – with disastrous consequences for all involved.

 

What I thought was missing from Vice – what all the cleverness and jokes and smug asides, and fine performances paper over – is that the movie never really understands why Cheney did anything he did. It seems like the movie believes than Cheney simply believed in power for power’s sake – that he wasn’t an ideologue in the least, then he no real beliefs at all other than to get power, and keep it by any means necessary. This doesn’t quite work for several reasons (including what the film portrays as Cheney’s betrayal of his daughter, after he stood by her for decades – a move I thought was unfair, and seems to be based on nothing). But perhaps it was the only way for McKay to tar Trump with the same brush as Cheney. In terms of ideology, the two are very different – Trump has attacked the Bush administration frequently, and the Republican party is over those years.

 

There is a great movie to be made about this time in American history – but we haven’t gotten it yet. I do think Stone’s W. is an underrated film – but even that one was basically a great portrait of W. himself, but not of very much around him. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bush years become as documented in film as Richard Nixon has become in the decades since his administration ended. But for now, we have to settle for a film like Vice. I didn’t much like it – it angered and frustrated me. It also kept me engaged, and thinking about it long after it ended. Take that for whatever you think it’s worth.

Movie Review: The Big Short

The Big Short
Directed by: Adam McKay.
Written by: Charles Randolph and Adam McKay based on the book by Michael Lewis.
Starring: Steve Carell (Mark Baum), Ryan Gosling (Jared Vennett), Christian Bale (Michael Burry),  Brad Pitt (Ben Rickert), Rafe Spall (Danny Moses), Hamish Linklater (Porter Collins), Jeremy Strong (Vinnie Daniel), John Magaro (Charlie Geller), Finn Wittrock (Jamie Shipley), Tracy Letts (Lawrence Fields), Marisa Tomei (Cynthia Baum), Adepero Oduye (Kathy Tao), Melissa Leo (Georgia Hale).

The financial crisis of 2008, that crashed the American economy, and had reverberations around the world, is one that I think many people do not really understand. As soon as things like “derivatives” and “subprime loans” and other, much more complicated terms start coming up, most people’s eyes glaze over, and they stop paying attention. Now if you’re like me, who as an accountant, found the whole thing fascinating, and read a few books about the subject (including the one this movie is based on), watched numerous documentaries (Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job is clearly the best), and read countless articles, and news stories (not to mention the excellent episodes that This American Life devoted to the subject), it’s pretty clear easy to see what happened. Yet, even though I understand what happened, a film like The Big Short still amazes me – because it makes what happened so very clear, and yet wraps it up into one of the most entertaining movies of the year – a film full of movie stars, who seem to be having fun, even while the movie seethes with anger. When people have asked me to explain what happened, I can see their eyes glaze over about a sentence in – now, I’ll just tell them to watch The Big Short.

Basically, the American economy was sunk by bad mortgages – in which lenders would give any moron off the street a mortgage to buy a house, because basically, it didn’t matter if they ever paid it back to the people lending the money – because it wasn’t really their money, and the more loans they gave out, the more money they made. Wall Street then took these loans, bundled them together, and sold them as if it were a safe bond – the housing market had never collapsed before, why would it now? Of course, the reason it collapsed was because of all those bad loans – but no one was really paying attention, or more accurately, no one wanted to pay attention, because they were all too busy making too much money to give a shit. What The Big Short is about is those few people who realized the housing market was going to collapse years before anyone else – and bet against the market – essentially taking insurance out against the economy (this is a gross simplification, as gross simplifications go, not nearly as entertaining as the ones featuring celebrities, playing themselves, in the Big Short).

I know I’ve probably lost a few readers with that paragraph – and fair enough – reading about this can be dull. But the movie is anything but. Directed by Adam McKay, who is best known for his films with Will Ferrell, and wouldn’t have been anyone’s idea of the director for this material, but he turns out to be perfect for it. He directs the film with the same energy of his other films – with a touch of Scorsese as well (this operates kind of like The Wolf of Wall Street, except you’re supposed to like these characters). He weaves together several different storylines – those of Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a strange man running an obscure hedge fund who realizes things are bad before anyone else, and starts betting against it. Soon others, like Mark Baum (Steve Carrell) and his teams, who are associated with a Wall Street bank, but doesn’t really work for them, get involved – with the help of Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) –the one character that seems like a clichéd Wall Street guy. And then a couple of small timers (John Magaro and Finn Wittrock) who team up with a paranoid, former Wall Street type (Brad Pitt) to do the same thing.

What’s amazing about The Big Short is how much information the film packs into the movie, without it ever feeling like an economics lesson, or a boring sermon. The film movies so quickly, with such great performances, that the film is never less than entertaining, is often quite funny – and yet remains angry from start to finish. This shouldn’t have happened – and yet it did. McKay and company have made one of the great movies about Wall Street in history – more entertaining, and less clichéd that Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, easier to take than The Wolf of Wall Street (which is a better movie, but less informative). You shouldn’t be able to make a crowd pleaser about this subject – but that is precisely what McKay has done.

Movie Review: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Directed by: Adam McKay.
Written by: Will Ferrell & Adam McKay.
Starring: Will Ferrell (Ron Burgundy), Steve Carell (Brick Tamland), Paul Rudd (Brian Fantana), David Koechner (Champ Kind), Christina Applegate (Veronica Corningstone), Dylan Baker (Freddie Shapp), Meagan Good (Linda Jackson), Judah Nelson (Walter Burgundy), James Marsden (Jack Lime), Greg Kinnear (Gary), Josh Lawson (Kench Allenby), Kristen Wiig (Chani Lastnamé), Bill Kurtis (Narrator).

Anchorman 2, like its predecessor, doesn’t really have much of a plot. What does exist in terms of story is basically a clothesline on which to hang jokes. This is a risky gambit, because many movies that attempt this approach fail miserably and become borderline unwatchable. But luckily for Anchorman – and the audience – it mostly does work in this film. Basically director Adam McKay has cast a group of talented comedic actors, with good chemistry together, and lets them loose on each other. It doesn’t always work, but when it works the film produces more laughs than most other Hollywood comedies.

The film is set in 1980, with Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and his wife Veronica (Christina Applegate) living in New York, and being co-anchors on the weekend shift. When the Nightly News Anchor announces he’s going to retire, he has big news for both Ron and Veronica – she’s going to be the new anchor, and he’s fired. Ron gives Veronica an ultimatum – him or the job. She chooses the job, and he heads back to San Diego with his tail between his legs. Months pass, and he is approached by a new network – GNN – who has a crazy idea – a 24 hour news station. They even allow Ron to bring his old team back together again – sports guy Champ (David Koechner), roving reporter Brian (Paul Rudd) and idiot weatherman Brick (Steve Carell). The catch? They’ll have to man the 2-5am shift. In order to garner attention Ron comes up with an idea – he figures no one actually wants to hear the real news – they want to be told America is great and watch car chases. He wants to appeal to idiots – and not surprisingly, they become a hit.

As a director, McKay has never really concerned himself with storytelling. This is his fifth film – following the original Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers and The Other Guys. At his best – like Talladega Nights, he makes what I call smart stupid comedies – comedies that are as goofy and silly and seemingly stupid as anything Adam Sandler would make, but actually funny, and has at least some smart ideas buried beneath all that stupidity. Talladega Nights addressed celebrity obsessed culture, consumerism, and the rise and celebration of stupidity – things addressed in both Anchorman movies as well. At his worst, like Step Brothers, McKay his films really are as stupid as they seem. Anchorman 2 is somewhere between those extremes – it does have something to say about infotainment, but they are easy points to make, and have been for years now. I did kind of admire the film for its sheer bravery it took to essentially call its entire audience idiots – but that only goes so far.

The film is what it is. It does not have the power to surprise us anymore. It basically follows the same formula as the first film – which is that the news team says outrageously idiotic things, while everyone around them look at them not quite believing what they are hearing – and being even more stunned that everyone seems to love them. Everything in the film is a little bit bigger than the first time around – it’s a little louder, a little stupider and is filled with so many celebrity cameos that I lost count early on. Surprisingly though, it all pretty much works. This is not a brilliant movie by any means – but as far as Hollywood comedies goes, this one made me laugh more than most. I don’t think the movie has any greater ambition than that, so I guess on its own limited terms, the film is a success.

Movie Review: The Other Guys

The Other Guys ***
Directed By: Adam McKay.
Written By: Adam McKay & Chris Henchy.
Starring: Will Ferrell (Allen Gamble), Mark Wahlberg (Terry Hoitz), Michael Keaton (Captain Gene Mauch), Steve Coogan (David Ershon), Eva Mendes (Dr. Sheila Gamble), Samuel L. Jackson (P.K. Highsmith), Dwayne Johnson (Christopher Danson), Rob Riggle (Martin), Damon Wayans Jr. (Fosse), Bobby Cannavale (Jimmy), Ray Stevenson (Roger Wesley), Andy Buckley (Don Beaman).

Will Ferrell can be one of the funniest actors on the planet given the right material to work with. Unfortunately, in the wrong role, he can also be one of the least funny people - his manic style can either make me laugh continuously, or leave me completely flat. His most frequent collaborator has been director Adam McKay - in four movies together they have only missed once - Step Brothers - while Anchorman and Talladega Nights rank among the funniest movies of the last decade - both are what I would call “smart stupid” comedies, in that there are as ridiculous as anything that someone like Adam Sandler would make, and yet they are a lot smarter than the appear. The Other Guys isn’t quite up to the level of those other two movies - but it’s damn close.

Ferrell stars as Allen Gamble, an accountant turned police detective who doesn’t like to do much of what most of us consider police work - no car chases or gun battles for him, he prefers to sit at his desk and do paper work. His partner is Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) who wants to get on the street and get some action - but is held back by Allen - but also because of a dark secret in his own past (which I will not reveal because it is one of the funniest moments in the movie). The stars of the department are Highsmith and Danson (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson, hilarious is cameos that hit all the action movie cliché buttons hard, right up to their unexpected finale), and that is who Hoitz wants to be. Gamble may have an idea on who to pursue - David Ershon (Steve Coogan) - who may be running a Ponzi scam. It may not be glamorous work, but it could be important.

I won’t reveal any more of the plot because, honestly, the plot of the movie isn’t really the point of the movie. The movie is really about the interaction between Ferrell and Wahlberg - and I have to say I was surprised by how well they worked together. Ferrell is a little more restrained than normal - more repressed than normal, like he’s scared of himself. This works well for Ferrell who doesn’t give into his more manic nature for most of the movie. This character is not a million miles away from his other accountant character - in Marc Forster’s Stranger Than Fiction, but this movie is not a serious movie like that one was. He delivers his one liners as good anyone out there. Wahlberg is also full of repressed rage in the movie - but he’s more in touch with his id, and prone to yelling. Wahlberg has always been a gifted comedic actor - he was hilarious in I Heart Huckabees and The Departed - but this is his first real comedy, and he delivers a great comedic performance. While Ferrell and Wahlberg carry the movie, they are ably supported by the entire cast - Michael Keaton is wonderful as the TLC quoting captain, Jackson and Johnson are great as the egomanical cops, Steve Coogan is once again hilarious as the “bad guy”, and Eva Mendes is great as Ferrell’s almost impossibly hot wife. They don’t get the opportunities that Ferrell and Wahlberg do to let loose, but they allow them to be good.
Co-writer/director Adam McKay is still a more talented writer than he is a director. As a writer, he gives his actors some of the best one liners of any movie this year. As a director perhaps his best attribute is that he stays out of the actors way. He certainly isn’t the best visual director out there. But when a movie is this well written, this funny pretty much from start to finish, can you really complain? The Other Guys is one of the most enjoyable comedies this summer - Kevin Smith should take note. He got all bent out of shape when critics trashed his similarly plotted Cop Out earlier this year - The Other Guys proves that critics can enjoy goofy comedies - but only when they are funny, and Smith’s movie was anything but.