by Nathaniel R
click to embiggenThe major Oscar hopeful that's played things closest to the vest this season is Vice. The trailer and poster (to your left) have both finally dropped today and other Oscar campaigns are probably shivering a bit. The film, from writer/director Adam McKay of The Big Short fame, is a comedy telling the true story of how Dick Cheney came to rule the world (albeit behind the curtain as the Vice President) and set the US on a sorry new course.
It's an all-star affair with Oscar winners Christian Bale (Dick Cheney) and Sam Rockwell (George W Bush), Oscar darling Amy Adams (Lynne Cheney), and Oscar nominee Steve Carell (Donald Rumsfeld) in political drag as figures we know and love hate. Alison Pill and Tyler Perry are also in the film (though they aren't featured in the trailer) as Mary Cheney and Colin Powell respectively.
After the jump the trailer and our Yes No Maybe So breakdown...
YES
- The framing device of the trailer is inspired with Bush asking Cheney to be his 'Vice' and then Cheney immediately bargaining for power and lots of it while Bush is too good ol' boy simple to realize or care that he'll be the 'symbolic' one of the pair.
- Mimicry & Makeup with capitals M as these famous stars are placing themselves in the skin, souls, clothes and hair of other famous people. This tends to be fun to watch in movies (and probably fun for the actors to perform) which is surely one of the reasons it's such a reliable Oscar-baiting tactic.
- The sound Bale makes when Carell asks him if he's even more ruthless now is A+, don't you think?
- Beautifully cut stylish trailer. Especially that big bold yellow type behind Bale/Cheney's stroll down the corridors of power.
NO
- I for one am NOT in the mood for this story given the political climate. The GOP has decimated this country so often and then the Democrats come in once in a while and basically just get to clean up until they're booted again. It's all so dispiriting. I don't want to watch these people even if McKay's politics (if The Big Short is indication) are positing them all as 'love to hate them' characters.
- Also is Comedy really the right tone given the mass destruction that administration's war mongering caused in the world? I'd hate to see this reduced to chuckles when it was soul crushing to live through.
- That 'who's the man' song business in the background... so much toxic masculinity in this trailer. I feel triggered!
- Annoyed with that shot of Bale shirtless with the big belly (shades of American Hustle). Bale is a beautiful man but people keep praising him for gaining and losing weight for roles and that much frequent transformation cannot possibly be good for his health; also it's not acting.
MAYBE SO
- ...on the other hand satire can be cathartic and so much will depend on execution. Speaking of...
- Though Bale has some great clips in this montage of scenes, there's also a few moments that play uncomfortably like SNL sketch comedy mimicry, especially his first and last line reading. There's a little bit of Batman still in there!
- There's extremely little of Amy Adams in the trailer but the one line she gets reminds uncomfortably of her behind-the-scenes power move in The Master (2012). I realize I'm in the minority but I think that's one of her least impressive performances. I never bought the ruthlessness.
- Why is Mary Cheney (Alison Pill) not in the trailer? Will it just be a cameo and shrug the Cheney's very questionable politics about LGBT people to the side?
Listen obviously I'm seeing it because Oscar nominations feel quite possible (it'll have to move up the charts after this trailer) but if I weren't a pundit/film blogger, I think I'd probably be a "no" on subject matter / tone unless reviews convinced me otherwise. Are you a Yes No or Maybe So?