Vice (2018)

There is something quite underwhelming about Vice, and it's the music. Nicholas Britell composed the most beautiful soundtrack of the year for If Beale Street Could Talk. So I had some high expectations for Vice too. But the music is disappointingly bland, typically Washington DC invoking West Wing or House of Cards. Compare this to the really slick, snazzy trailer so sharply edited to the music. The movie really misses out on the style that made The Big Short and even the Vice trailer unique and fun. The movie does have a style, it's mockumentary without the talking head interviews. I really dislike the ending in which the Dick Cheney turns his head to break the fourth wall for the first time. It's unnecessarily jarring and so clearly copying House of Cards. I guess we're supposed to draw a parallel to Frank Underwood's iconic evil, but Cheney's real evil can stand on it's own. He's already sitting for an interview; he could have said the exact same monologue to the interviewer. Overall, the movie feels tonally awkward. The narration feels very out of place.

There are some things done well. Adam McKay draws an abundantly clear line from Dick Cheney to Donald Trump. He hears all the rank and file Republicans crying that this is not their GOP, and he demonstrates plainly how wrong they are. Trump naturally emerges from the traditions of Cheney-style conservatism. And McKay will not let them deny it. Call it a primary source on our contemporary times. The situation is so dire that you can only laugh to not cry.

The acting is superb all around. Steve Carrell has been acting in dramas lately, but you really see him shine in comedies. Amy Adams is stellar as usual. And Christian Bale is phenomenal, as is his make-up artist. He is absolutely unrecognizable and looks uncannily like Dick Cheney.

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

It's a dark comedy, cleverly written, well-acted, and unexpectedly quite funny for a movie about vigilante justice. But I do feel like it hides a little behind it's label as a dark comedy. There are some rather problematic parts that I think have been glossed over a little quickly without scrutiny. For example, Peter Dinklage's character is the butt of a number of ill-spirited midget jokes. How about the blase attitude on police brutality? There's the cop that beats African Americans. There's this same cop that defenestrates people. There's the sheriff that seems to condone this cop's behavior. And we're supposed to feel bad for this sheriff? And what about the black friend that is thrown in jail on trumped up drug charges? Frances McDormand makes a big fuss about it at first, but then let's it go. Just collateral damage. So what redeems the movie amidst all this? Frances McDormand. She's devilishly good.