Brilliant Vice

I Saw Vice yesterday.

It's an absolutely great movie. Well written, very well directed, great performances all around. It's rare to see a movie tackle such a serious subject with such so much humor and still punch you in the gut with the gravity of the matter at hand. Christian Bale (who I still think of as an asshole every since that screaming recording) pulls off an absolutely incredible Dick Cheney, and it's not just about the weight gain. He completely nails Cheney's facial expressions and attitude.

Steve Carrel does a pretty good Rumsfeld, but against Bale's Cheney, he can't quite keep up despite delivering an otherwise excellent performance. Sam Rockwell nails George Bush's general attitude, but perhaps would've looked more convincing with a slight bit of weight gain himself to round up his face a little more - but character-wise, he carries the role perfectly.

The script itself is hilarious, with one particular bedroom scene between Dick and his wife playing out brilliantly. The movie's hard on most of them, justifiably so, but it sort of lets Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell off the hook by making them seem like reluctant participants rather than the excited house-niggers that they proved to be (the whole Kuwait Embassy / Incubator Baby Con-Job goes unmentioned, for example), but that, ostensibly, could be seen as being in the service of keeping the focus on Cheney's crimes rather than their own.

It has its faults, but it's an absolute gem of a movie, using metaphors in a very concrete way and making you laugh at deeply disturbing things. 

Watch it.