--- title: "Vice" year: 2018 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/vice" fi1m_score: 61 critics_score: 66 critics_reviews: 25 published: "2026-09-20T07:51:48.310574+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T07:52:06.909051+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Vice (2018) Directed by Adam McKay · 2h 12m · MPA R · Drama, Comedy, History **Fi1m score: 61** · Critics 66 from 25 reviews *In a sentence:* Two hours of Christian Bale not raising his voice while the editing does it for him > Christian Bale’s Dick Cheney is a remarkable piece of impersonation, heavy, quiet and watchful, and Adam McKay builds around it a film so busy telling us what to think that it never finds out what the man thought. Funny in bursts, wearying by the end. ## Synopsis Wyoming, 1963. Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) is a Yale drop-out stringing power lines and drinking, until his wife Lynne (Amy Adams) tells him to make something of himself or lose her. By the end of the decade he is an intern in Washington, attaching himself to Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell), a foul-mouthed congressman on a fast rise through the Nixon administration. Cheney learns to say little, stand near power and wait until it notices him. A narrator called Kurt (Jesse Plemons), whose connection to Cheney the film withholds, leads us from the young lineman to the heavy, quiet man in the White House bunker on 11 September 2001, who will serve George W. Bush (Sam Rockwell) as vice president. ## Review Adam McKay’s film about Dick Cheney opens with a caption admitting that its subject is one of the most secretive men in American history and that the film has done its best. That best runs 132 minutes, carries a 15 certificate, and uses every device McKay tried in [*The Big Short*](https://film.one/film/the-big-short) (2015) and a few he did not: a narrator, freeze frames, cutaways to fishing lures and a beating heart, captions that argue with the pictures. At the centre of it, saying almost nothing, is Christian Bale, and he is the reason to see it. Bale plays Cheney heavy, bald and slow, talking out of one side of his mouth in a voice that never rises. He does not do a turn. He plays a man who has noticed that nobody watches the quiet one, and uses it. His best moments are the ones in which nothing happens: Cheney at the back of a room, Cheney listening to a phone, Cheney deciding in silence to want something. Amy Adams gives Lynne the ambition her husband has to be lent, and their early scenes in Wyoming, with the future laid out across a kitchen table, are the film’s most honest drama. Steve Carell’s Rumsfeld is a grinning bully who laughs out loud when the young Cheney asks him what they believe in. Bill Camp is a decent, harassed Gerald Ford. Sam Rockwell plays George W. Bush as an amiable man eating fried chicken while giving away the store, and we laughed, then felt slightly ashamed of ourselves, because the joke depends on our already having decided he was a fool, and the film never checks whether we have. Alison Pill and Lily Rabe, as the daughters Mary and Liz, are the one place the script finds something the public record does not already say, and it saves them for last and handles them with a quiet the rest of the film does not have. The craft is real. Greig Fraser shoots the Nixon and Ford years in dun browns and fluorescent office light, so that power looks like a corridor with a carpet. Patrice Vermette dresses the White House as a run of small, over-furnished rooms. Susan Matheson keeps Cheney in the same boxy suit across four decades and lets his body change inside it. Nicholas Britell’s score is the film’s wittiest element, martial brass played a little too grandly for whatever is on screen, and it does more satire on its own than any of the captions. Hank Corwin’s editing is where the argument happens, and where the trouble is. Corwin cuts a Cheney handshake to a fish taking a hook, a legal memo to a heart pumping, a cabinet meeting to a river in Wyoming, and for half an hour this is exciting. Then it does not stop. Every time Bale has built a silence, the film cuts away to explain what the silence meant. By the second hour we were watching a lecture with a very good actor in the corner of the frame, and we were angry, partly at Cheney, as intended, and partly at a film that would not trust us to get there on our own. The unitary executive theory, the idea that a president may do anything he decides is within his office, is explained twice, once as a comic sketch and once in text on screen. The Iraq invasion, the camps and the torture memos arrive as a montage of headlines. Eddie Marsan, Justin Kirk and LisaGay Hamilton, as Wolfowitz, Libby and Rice, each get a scene in which to look shifty or worried. None of this is untrue; almost none of it is dramatised. *The Big Short* worked because its subject was a system and the sketches were the only way in. Cheney is a man, and the film could have gone and looked at him. McKay is so sure of what he would find that he never does, and Bale, who plainly did the looking, spends the film answering questions his director keeps interrupting. It is worth an evening for him and for Adams. Watch it at home, where you can pause on the captions and let the performance breathe, which the cut never does. *Fi1m score 61, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics come down in favour, and on one point they are nearly unanimous: Christian Bale’s performance as Dick Cheney. Reviews describe it as transformative, uncannily convincing and the film’s dramatic centre; even the hostile notices concede it. Amy Adams draws steady praise in support, and those who enjoy the film enjoy Adam McKay’s formal games too: the freeze frames, the cutaways, the fourth-wall breaks, the narrator trick. To its admirers it is angry, funny and timely. The reservations cluster on McKay himself. A sizeable minority find the gimmicks glib and the satire smug, preaching to people who already agree and offering anger where insight is wanted. The AV Club calls Bale the film’s sole virtue. Little White Lies thinks it turns Cheney into a Bond villain and flattens complicated politics into conspiracy. The Wrap argues the comic approach is the wrong one for so grim a subject. The spread is wide, running from raves to flat dismissals. ### Reviews we read (25) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (90/100, inferred): Brainy, audacious, and fun, the savage satire is a tonic for troubled times that delights in throwing everything on screen and playing games with structure while delivering a dark warning about ignoring facts. It succeeds through committed acting, especially Bale’s transformative portrayal of Cheney and Adams as his driving force. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-vice-review-20181221-story.html) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Todd McCarthy (90/100, inferred): McKay delivers a scorchingly audacious dark tragicomedy about Cheney's rise that illuminates history with buoyant humor and depth. Bale's transformative performance as the shape-shifting Cheney is singled out for particular praise. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/vice-review-1166477/) - **Empire**, Andrew Lowry (80/100, inferred): It is smart filmmaking from a director who improves with every film and features a near career-best from Bale. The film mixes formal games and strong performances to deliver an angry lesson in American civics. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/vice-review/) - **Radio Times**, Terry Staunton (★★★★): McKay's savage satire chronicles Cheney's career as a sinister true-life drama of Shakespearean proportions, with standout performances especially Bale's uncannily convincing portrayal. The gimmicks and showboating make it divisive, but the calibre of the acting is inarguable. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/vice-review-a-sinister-true-life-drama-of-shakespearean-proportions/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film entertaining and nihilistic, with a standout central performance from Christian Bale as the blandly magnificent Dick Cheney. McKay's meta gags and structural tricks are effective, making it stronger than his previous effort The Big Short. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/17/vice-review-christian-bale-dick-cheney-biopic) - **Time Out**, Joshua Rothkopf (4/5): McKay delivers a daringly impressionistic biopic anchored by Bale's astounding, vicious performance as Cheney, with radical editing and audiovisual flair that feels timely. Some metaphors and bookends strain, but the jazzy momentum and pop-cultural details carry it. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/vice) - **Total Film** (80/100, inferred): Vice is political satire at its keenest, less a conventional biopic than a howl of frustration. Christian Bale delivers a massive, transformative performance that outstrips his previous work. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/vice-review/) - **The Independent** (70/100, inferred): The film is bravura storytelling that offers a fast, witty tour through recent US politics. Bale's performance makes Cheney both buffoonish and sinister. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/vice-review-christian-bale-dick-cheney-steve-carell-adam-mckay-a8744336.html) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (70/100, inferred): The film presents a negative great man theory of history, showing how Dick Cheney bent reality to his will through discipline, guile, and luck. It mixes psychohistory, domestic drama, and sketch-comedy satire, grounded in Christian Bale’s canny performance, and serves as a cure for amnesia about recent events. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/movies/vice-review.html) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★☆): The film is an effervescent pop biography that eviscerates its subject while showcasing Bale's physical transformation and McKay's formal inventiveness through freeze frames, cutaways, and a surprise narrator twist. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/vice-review-7m5tcmgtn) - **Vulture** (70/100, inferred): Bale's spot-on Cheney impersonation anchors the rollicking comic anti-hagiography despite gimmicks. The film's structural problems and reliance on journalistic sketches rather than dramatic heft are noted as drawbacks. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/vice-is-gimmicky-but-christian-bales-cheney-is-spot-on.html) - **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (4/3/2): McKay's satirical portrait of Dick Cheney turns the character into a Bond-villain parody, blaming him for far too much while oversimplifying complex politics into a smug conspiracy. Bale's performance is praised as infinitely watchable and terrifyingly unknowable. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/vice) - **The AV Club**, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (C): Bale's impression of Cheney is the film's sole virtue amid glib and superficial material. The spaghetti-at-the-wall approach and fourth-wall breaks are singled out as mostly second-rate and under-dramatized. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/christian-bale-s-dick-cheney-impression-is-the-only-vir-1830971498) - **Film Comment**, Jonathan Romney (50/100, inferred): The film mixes effective anger and strong performances with an uneven, sometimes overly comedic tone that undercuts its seriousness. Bale's physical and vocal transformation into Cheney stands out as the dramatic core. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-of-the-week-vice/) - **Slant Magazine**, Chuck Bowen (2/4): McKay's noisy, self-conscious biopic preaches to the choir with isolated bits of lunacy but lacks momentum and curiosity about its subject. Bale's performance offers some grace notes, but the director's revulsion overrides empathy. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/vice-2018/) - **Screen Daily** (40/100, inferred): There is anger but no insight in this glib, unfocused satire that preaches to the choir and becomes less persuasive as it goes; McKay squanders Bale's convincing performance on a self-satisfied portrait that fails to deliver a compelling Cheney. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/vice-review/5134628.article) - **Evening Standard**, Matthew Norman (30/100, inferred): The portrait is too crude to shed meaningful light on its subject despite strong performances. McKay's narrative gimmicks and lack of psychological depth undermine the biopic. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/vice-review-this-crude-portrait-fails-to-shed-light-on-a-heartless-veep-a4048616.html) - **IndieWire**, Eric Kohn (30/100, inferred): Bale gives a perfect impersonation of Cheney, but the satire feels overly ambitious and messy in its execution. The film is praised for ambition yet critiqued for trying too hard with its stylistic flourishes. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/vice-review-christian-bale-dick-cheney-1202027625/) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (A-): The film delivers an entertaining but damning portrait of unfettered power operating in secret. It prioritizes showing the broader political landscape and Cheney’s role in it over deep character insight, with strong performances grounding the absurd elements. [Read](https://collider.com/vice-review/) - **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (9/10): The critic finds it a funny, infuriating, scathing portrait of Cheney as the architect of modern political woes, praising Bale's transformative performance while noting the unsubtle approach. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/562767/vice-review/) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (85/100, inferred): The critic praises McKay as one of the best cinematic satirists for this unconventional biopic of Dick Cheney. Bale delivers a pitch-perfect, wickedly funny impersonation, with strong support from Adams and others; the film is smart, sharp, relevant and funny. [Read](https://deadline.com/video/vice-review-christian-bale-amy-adams-dick-cheney-adam-mckay-political-satire/) - **The Playlist**, Rodrigo Perez (B+): The critic praises the blisteringly angry and funny condemnation of Cheney, highlighting the satirical style, strong performances especially Bale and Adams, and the film's bold approach to exposing power abuses. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/vice-adam-mckay-review-2-20181217/) - **Den of Geek**, Don Kaye (3/5): Bale delivers an astonishing performance as the calculating Cheney, supported by strong turns from Adams and Rockwell, but the film’s satirical approach feels mismatched to its grim subject matter and results in an uneven, standard biopic structure. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/vice-review/) - **The Ringer**, Adam Nayman (40/100, inferred): The film attempts an ambitious satirical condemnation of Cheney and Republican power plays over decades but feels overly strained and self-conscious. It lacks the humor and lightness of McKay’s earlier work, resulting in a flawed effort despite some strong performances and a solid thesis. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2018/12/21/movies/adam-mckay-vice-dick-cheney-review) - **The Wrap**, Candice Frederick (35/100, inferred): The critic finds the film mediocre overall, arguing McKay's wacky comedic approach is the wrong tack for the subject and fails to be insightful or confrontational. It highlights how white mediocrity rises in politics but pokes fun without accountability. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/vice-film-review-dick-cheney-christian-bale-amy-adams/) ## Details - **Director:** Adam McKay - **Director:** Adam McKay - **Writer:** Adam McKay - **Cinematography:** Greig Fraser - **Editor:** Hank Corwin - **Music:** Nicholas Britell - **Production design:** Patrice Vermette - **Costume design:** Susan Matheson - **Producer:** Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Dede Gardner - **Cast:** Christian Bale as Dick Cheney; Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney; Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld; Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush; Alison Pill as Mary Cheney; Eddie Marsan as Paul Wolfowitz; Justin Kirk as Scooter Libby; LisaGay Hamilton as Condoleezza Rice - **Runtime:** 2h 12m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 25 December 2018 - **Genres:** Drama, Comedy, History - **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2018); [Golden Globe Best Musical or Comedy winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-comedy.md) (Nominee, 2018) - **Budget:** $60 million - **Box office:** $76 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g09a9laLh0k ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $9.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, IE, IN, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2019: Best Picture (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Big Short* (2015), Fi1m 80: McKay’s same tricks on a subject that actually needed them; funnier and clearer — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-big-short.md) - *Nixon* (1995): Oliver Stone gives a hated president three hours and, crucially, the benefit of curiosity - *Il Divo* (2008): Sorrentino’s Andreotti: another quiet, unreadable man, shot like a horror film - *In the Loop* (2009), Fi1m 86: The run-up to a war as a farce of memos, meetings and men out of their depth — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/in-the-loop.md) - *The Death of Stalin* (2017), Fi1m 83: Power struggle as slapstick, with the bodies kept firmly in frame — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-death-of-stalin.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/vice