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Date: 1/16/2019
What I’m watching: an intriguing bio-pic/social commentary and perhaps the first Netflix feature film to get a lot of attention.
In theaters: Vice
Some critics have called “Vice,” a biography of Vice President Dick Cheney, a satire or even a comedy. There have been columns written about whether or not director Adam McCay succeeded in replicating the kind of movie he did with “The Big Short.”
That film was able to tell a true story about the 2008 housing failure that brought about the worst financial crisis for this nation since the Great Depression.
“Vice” goes in another direction: Washington D.C. power and politics and how a guy who was kicked out of Yale for fighting and drinking wound up as a major power player in the nation. McCay applies unorthodox means to tell his story just as he did in “The Big Short.”
The structure of the film includes a narrator whose identity is another commentary on Cheney.
The issue here is just how accurate is the film and whether or not a more traditional documentary form could have been a better way to explain how Cheney amassed the power that he had and what he did with it.
Personally as a journalist, I want it to be as accurate as possible and naturally, in this docu-drama form, there are questions.
Coming from comedy, it’s clear that McCay understands the value of shock value and archetypes. Take Donald Rumsfeld, who, when he was Secretary of Defense, had the public persona of someone who used language that seemed both old-fashioned and sometimes, frankly odd. He is seen here as someone who is both salty and direct. It creates laughs.
President George W. Bush is a bit of a simpleton, but that has been the pop culture perception for quite some time.
The issue here is how much should McCay treat such heavy topics with an approach that at times borders on “Saturday Night Live?”
When the focus is on Cheney himself, the film seems to understand what it has to do, at least in part due to the performance by Christian Bale. Bale treats Cheney seriously. He is no joke, but rather a dedicated family man with conservative values who is willing to be ruthless in his pursuit to do what he believes is the right thing.
Bale and the script made Cheney more than a villain and that is the film’s ultimate success.
Although the film is not perfect, what I think it attempts to do is to actually draw lines between cause and effect to show how policies that Cheney and the Bush Administration pursued affected today’s world.
It’s an interesting approach – but not necessarily always appropriate – to presenting history.
On Netflix: Bird Box
The new horror film from Netflix, “Bird Box,” has created a national sensation and naturally, I had to see what film has inspired idiots to blindfold themselves and drive cars or walk around, then posting videos of the activity for the world to see.
The premise of the film is that the world has been invaded by entities – we never see them – who cause the people who look at them to become suicidal. The only way to survive is to blindfold yourself or to live in a house with blocked windows.
Sandra Bullock plays a woman who has managed to survive for five years with two young children and is now attempting to reach a community of survivors by taking a trip down a river that lasts for several days.
The film alternates between the trip down the river with flashbacks from five years previous.
In many ways this film takes the same storyline as “A Quiet Place,” only that instead of aliens who kill what they can hear, we have aliens who cause death through sight. Frankly, the premise of keeping quiet to avoid death is a lot more realistic than attempting to navigate through the world wearing a blindfold.
There are narrative gaps in the film that are frustrating and the ending itself doesn’t really satisfy. Bullock’s performance is fine, as are the ones of the supporting cast, but they can’t overcome a script with some fatal flaws.
There are some chilling moments, but as a whole I’m not sure just what the fuss is all about.