![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Vice.jpg?resize=367%2C417\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWord on the street is that this grim yet funny biopic, written and directed by Adam McKay (trailer<\/a>), is slow. I didn\u2019t find it so, absorbed as I was by McKay\u2019s version of the dark mind and hollow soul of Dick Cheney, long-time Republican operative and George W. Bush\u2019s vice-president. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since everything is relative, we of short attention span might be tempted to look back on the Bush II Administration with some nostalgia, given . . . This movie is a bracing corrective to that impulse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Cheney, Christian Bale gets better and better as the film\nprogresses and Cheney ages, from an irresponsible drunk to master puppeteer\u2014\u201cresilient,\nback-stabbing, front-stabbing, ruthlessly ambitious,\u201d says Richard Roeper in the\nChicago Sun-Times<\/em>. Early on, we see\nthe 9\/11 scene in the White House situation room. (Our President, recall, was\nreading to a bunch of schoolchildren when that catastrophe unfolded.) While all\nthe other national leaders sequestered in the White House basement are in\nshock, the narrator says, Cheney \u201csaw an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He saw another one when approached by W (Golden Globe winner\nSam Rockwell) to be his vice president. At first he demurs, but he recognizes\nthat Bush is a blank slate. The guy hasn\u2019t a clue. Cheney does. And the\npower-grab is on. Eventually, tasked with identifying a vice presidential\ncandidate, he identifies himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amy Adams revels in her role as Lynne Cheney\/Lady Macbeth, and\nthere\u2019s even an apocryphal pillowtalk scene where she and Dick recite\nShakespeare\u2019s lines to each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As he did in The Big Short<\/a>, <\/em>McKay breaks the\nfourth wall to demonstrate what he\u2019s suggesting with visuals puns and sly humor.\nIf this film is slow, it\u2019s slow like a steamroller, flattening everything and\neveryone in its path. Stay for the credits. There\u2019s a bit more movie partway\nthru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rotten\nTomatoes<\/a> critics\u2019 rating: 62%; audiences: 54%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Beautiful Boy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Director Felix Van Groeningen\u2019s film recreation of the\nstories of David Sheff<\/a> and his son Nic Sheff<\/a>, and their family\u2019s struggle\nagainst Nic\u2019s drug addiction is tough to watch (trailer<\/a>). But only if\nyou\u2019ve ever been the parent of a teenager or been a teenager yourself. There\nare times and circumstances when parental love becomes unbearable for them all.\nAlthough, like the relapses of addiction itself, the action occasionally\nbecomes repetitive, Steve Carell as the frantic father and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet as\nNic are heartbreaking. Maura Tierny as Nic\u2019s stepmom and Amy Ryan as his\nbiological mother provide powerful performances too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rotten\nTomatoes<\/a> critics\u2019 rating: 67%; audiences 77%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Favourite<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An entertaining costume drama about three real-life women, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (trailer<\/a>). Poor Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) was truly a sad character in real life, plagued by ill health, and, despite 17 pregnancies, leaving no heir. Her reign was short (1702-1714), and she was a widow for half of it. Several strong women were her dueling confidants (Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone). Beautiful costumes, fantastic acting, especially by Colman. I wish the filmmaker had been drawn less to the rumors of lesbianism, which are discounted by many historians, and more to the politics of the time. It was in Queen Anne\u2019s reign that Great Britain was formed, for example. Plus, the Worst Credits Ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rotten\nTomatoes<\/a> critics\u2019 rating: 94%; audiences: 61%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Roma<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Beautiful black and white photography in this highly praised\nautobiographical movie written and directed by Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n (trailer<\/a>). And compelling\nacting by the nonprofessional cast, particularly Yalitza Aparicio as Cleo, the\nput-upon maid of a four-child household in domestic turmoil. She keeps them\ntogether, literally and spiritually. I thought I\u2019d read that she is\nunappreciated, but she isn\u2019t or perhaps the filmmaker is atoning for a lapse in\nhis own history. It\u2019s pleasant and pretty but breaks no new ground\u2014\u201cquotidian\nand extraordinary at the same time,\u201d said Gary\nM. Kramer<\/a> in Salon.com<\/em>. Now this\none is<\/em> slow.Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics\u2019\nrating: 96%; audiences: 83%. \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s the season to squeeze in viewings of prospective Academy Award nominees. All four of these films and their cast members are in contention. Nominations to be announced January 22, and the awards ceremony will be February 24. Vice Word … Continue reading