Review #1,464: 'Vice' (2018)

After spending most of his career larking around with Will Ferrell in the likes of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Brothers and The Other Guys, writer/director Adam McKay took a huge leap towards 'serious' film-making in 2015 when he released The Big Short, a funny, intelligent and unexpectedly engrossing account of the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The Big Short may not sound like much fun on paper, but McKay latched onto this idea, making the tedious subject of subprime loans and triple-A ratings interesting by entwining it with pop culture, employing the likes of Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez to dumb it down for the audience in a manner that was too wickedly clever to ever be patronising. With Academy recognition now under his belt, McKay strides into his next project - a biopic of one of the most fearsome yet enigmatic political figures in U.S. history - with confidence, and dare I say it, a touch of arrogance.

McKay is eager to perform the same trick again with Vice, a sporadically inspired but frustratingly blunt quasi-biography that feels to penetrate the skin of its subject or answer the big question of just what was the driving force behind the man who turned the symbolic position of Vice President into one of great power and influence. Rather than dig deeper, McKay prefers to allow Dick Cheney's actions to speak for themselves, occasionally cutting away to a visual metaphor, such as, in the case of Cheney's key meeting with Sam Rockwell's George W. Bush, a cheetah bringing down its prey. Cheney is a man McKay clearly views as a highly functioning psychopath, tracking his journey from working under Steve Carell's Donald Rumsfeld in the Nixon Administration, to his opportunistic lunge for control in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. He fought to grant more power to a President he easily manipulated, praying on his short attention span and lack of political know-how, and to legalise torture, finding a massive legal loophole in the shape of Guantanamo Bay.

Vice is structured like a classic coming-of-age movie, with its 'hero' rising and falling, before dusting himself off and getting to his feet to rise again. After President Ford (Bill Camp) is voted out of office, seemingly closing all political doors for Cheney, McKay rolls the credits and pans away from the Cheney household, before an abrupt phone call reminds us that this story has barely begun. Like many of the jokes in Vice, the credit-roll-fake-out is funnier in theory than execution, and the film often takes the trickery so far that it threatens to undermine the seriousness of the subject matter. Satire must be funny, but it must also carry an emotional wallop that McKay struggles to find. At the centre of it all is Christian Bale's powerhouse performance, which explores a man whose obsessiveness could be compared to that of the actor's own extreme approach to his craft. Once again Bale takes his own body to the limit, piling on the pounds to resemble a man who suffered multiple heart attacks throughout his life (it becomes a running gag in the film), and adopting a deep growl capable of subtle intimidation. The performances of Bale, Carrel and Rockwell are all worth the entry fee alone, but Vice stutters to engage on a deeper level, failing to explain just how an oil company CEO can seize control of one of the most powerful countries in the world, and execute his plans with such cold indifference.


Directed by: Adam McKay
Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Alison Pill, Eddie Marsan, Justin Kirk, Jesse Plemons, Bill Camp, Tyler Perry
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,000: 'The Big Short' (2015)

With a career built around Will Ferrell vehicles such as Anchorman (2004), Step Brothers (2008) and The Other Guys (2010), writer/director Adam McKay has made an astonishing leap into the big-leagues with The Big Short, clearly a passion project that discusses the inner workings of the housing market and subprime loans and manages to make it entertaining, funny and infuriating all at the same time. It tells the story of the financial crisis that hit the U.S. and eventually the rest of the world in 2007, and the men who foresaw it and profited hugely from the disaster while nobody paid attention.

Adapted from Michael Lewis's novel of the same name, The Big Short tells three non-intertwining stories. One-eyed hedge-fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale) suffers from Asperger's, but what he lacks in social skills he makes up for in sheer ability to read numbers. He is the only person to take a look at the housing market in detail and sees its collapse as a certainty. Visiting several banks, he bets against the market while the staff laugh behind his back. Spray-tanned trader Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), who also serves as our fourth-wall-breaking narrator, catches wind of this and, realising that Burry's predictions are likely correct, decides to bring his credit-swap dealings to the attention of other potential investors.

One person who is convinced by Vennett's proposal is Mark Baum (Steve Carell), a hedge fund manager with anger issues and a hatred of The Man, who, along with his team, starts to investigate these distressing claims for himself and learns that the banks have been selling collateralised debt obligations - loans made up of worthless bonds given fraudulent AAA ratings. Small-time investors Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) also want their piece of the action but are below the capital threshold to make a worthwhile profit and so employ Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), a former Wall Street trader turned reclusive organic-obsessive, to assist them with their trades.

If it all sounds a touch confusing, it's because it is. The entire housing market was wrapped up in so many layers of bull-shit that it took a weird genius such as Burry to actually see it for what it was. McKay is aware of this too, and to ensure that attention doesn't wander during those important moments of exposition, he employs celebrities such as Margot Robbie, Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez to explain it to the audience in simple terms. The film doesn't think that the audience is stupid, but simply acknowledges just how dull the subject matter is. The fact that the banks ultimately escaped punishment and were bailed out by the government reinforces the importance of the general public's understanding of how they operated to ensure it doesn't happen again (although the sobering revelations at the climax reveal that they're at it again already).

The cast is uniformly flawless. Carell is the stand-out. with his Baum serves as the film's simmering champion of the little people. While he works in stocks, he holds nothing but disdain for the way his country operates. Bale is terrific too, careful not to paint Burry as a cartoon character as he slumps around his office in shorts and bare feet and pounds air-drums to heavy metal (Bale also has the uncanny ability to move each of his eyes independently, removing the need for a fake glass eye). While Gosling's Vennett is your typical grease-ball suit, he revels in the characters arrogance and projects enough charisma to even convince Baum to trust him. Despite the ensemble, the real hero is McKay who resists laying on the style too thickly and delivers a film bursting with energy, maturity and humour. Of the Academy's 2015 Best Picture line-up, The Big Short is my pick for film of the year.


Directed by: Adam McKay
Starring: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Jeremy Strong, Rafe Spall, John Magaro, Finn Wittrock, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #839: 'Foxcatcher' (2014)

When it comes to depicting a real figure caught up in real events, the one aspect that movie's struggle with is really getting to the heart of it's character. Commonly, these characters are larger than life, and it takes a truly talented actor to bring them to life and an intelligent script to dig beneath their skin. Director Bennett Miller seem to have the magic touch. His three features have all been based on true-life stories. Philip Seymour Hoffman brought Truman Capote to life in Capote (2005), to the point where you believed the strange voice coming out of him wasn't a mere impersonation, but an embodiment. His second feature, Moneyball (2011) was a solid depiction of underdog coach Billy Bean (Brad Pitt), who changed baseball forever with his use of statistical analysis.

He's done it again with Foxcatcher, the shocking true tale of one man's madness amidst the quest for Olympic gold. Like with Moneyball, we are taken behind the scenes (or beyond the mat) of the sporting world, and the screen is flooded with the same damp, autumn colours as it was in Capote. It is melancholic but unsettling, as if slowly pumping up a balloon and waiting for it to burst. We first meet Olympic gold medallist Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), scraping twenty bucks together by appearing in his brother's absence at a school to teach kids the values required to achieve a gold medal. He goes home and eats microwave noodles, and then it's back to the practice mat in preparation for the next tournament.

His luck seems on the rise when he is contacted by the mysterious John du Pont (Steve Carell), the head of a vastly wealthy dynasty who lives at his huge, beautiful Foxcatcher Farm. Curious, Mark goes to meet him and learns of du Pont's plans to make his farm the breeding ground of American wrestling. He instantly signs up, and Mark is given his own cabin and top-notch training facility. He is also given lots of cocaine, and soon submits to du Pont, at one point seen crouching in front of du Pont on his porch, like a well-trained guard dog. But du Pont is not satisfied with Mark alone - he wants his brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo), also an gold medallist - at Foxcatcher too. Only Dave has settled with his wife (Sienna Miller) and children in the suburbs and, as Mark points out, can't be bought. Du Pont cannot process this.

If you don't know the bizarre news story that came out of this arrangement, then it's best not to know. The film's foreboding is creeping. The introduction of John du Pont doesn't portray him as the strange, uncharismatic, and increasingly deranged man that he was; instead we see him at a distance, muttering pleasantries and looking down that huge nose of his. He doesn't convince as a wrestling coach, but Mark laps up the attention and luxury like any young man in his position would. When Dave eventually arrives, he sees du Pont for what he is - a man-child who inherited wealth, buying tanks to add to his military paraphernalia and living in fear of his reclusive mother (played by Vanessa Redgrave), wishing himself a leader of men without possessing any of the necessary skills required to be so. Only at this point, Mark has seen it too, but he also resents the success of his brother.

Miller and screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman take all of this and makes it an analogy of modern America, where wealth inherited rather than earned still looms large over a country sworn to pursuing the dream and democracy. The performances are terrific. Carell and Ruffalo earned the Oscar nominations, but Tatum more than holds his own. In a scene just after a lost bout, Mark paces his room like a cage animal, suddenly bursting with rage and destroying a mirror with his head. Considering this was improvised on the spot by a dedicated Tatum, it really takes the breath away. Like the recent work of David Fincher, I believe that in the years to come, Foxcatcher will be studied as a window into our times and will be viewed as one of the finest American films of it's era.


Directed by: Bennett Miller
Starring: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #735: 'Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues' (2013)

Rehashing comedy formulas seems to be the go-to approach of recent years, especially for sleeper hits. One of the last decade's most successful comedies - both critically and commercially - The Hangover (2009), rode it's success to the tune of over $1.4 billion, managing to squeeze not one, but two sequels out of little more than re-telling the same jokes in slightly different ways. A whopping 9 years after Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), comes the long-awaited sequel. The budget has been upped, the running-time stretched, and the improvisation isn't nicely spattered throughout the film, but seems to define it. But director Adam McKay and actor Will Ferrell, who both co-wrote the film, seems to think it's army of dedicated fans want to see their favourite characters do the same thing all over again.

So, rather than Ron (Ferrell) having comical conversations with his pet dog Baxter, he rescues a shark he names Doby and cradles him like a baby. This time, Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) wows his co-workers with his condom cabinet, rather than a collection of rare (and illegal) after shaves. There's another ridiculous flute performance, but this time on an ice rink in a scene that looks like it was left on the Blades of Glory (2007) cutting-room floor. And one of the most memorable moments from the first film - the cameo-filled news-anchor street fight - is done again, but the cameo's come from Oscar-winners, superstars, a manticore, and a douchebag pop star. Only everyone forgot to make it funny. I'm admittedly being harsh, as although Anchorman 2 is not a patch on its predecessor (which I find overrated anyway), it's still funnier than the vast majority of the pap that Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson churn out what seems like every month.

Years after the first film, Ron and Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), now his wife, are co-hosts at a successful New York news network. When their boss Mack Tannen (Harrison Ford) announces he is to retire, he promotes Veronica to fill his spot and fires Ron for his frequent on-air follies. Jealous of his wife, Ron forces Veronica to choose him or the job, to which she chooses the latter, leaving Ron to storm out on his son Walter (Judah Nelson), and take a job at Sea World. When he is fired for having a meltdown, and a failed suicide attempt, he is offered job at a new 24-hour news station by Freddie Shapp (Dylan Baker). After accepting, Ron rounds up his old team Champ Kind (David Koechner), Brian Fantana, and the presumed-dead Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), who turns up at his own funeral.

While the first film didn't have much of a plot, it still had the theme of gender equality holding it together, and had a romance to root for in Ron's chest-beating buffoon and Veronica's strong-minded, self-made woman. Anchorman 2 tackles the rise of flashy, popcorn news, where stats and news bulletins whizz up and down every side of the screen and the anchor gives us stories of cute animals, acts of patriotism, and high-speed car chases. It was the day Edward R. Murrow rolled in his grave, and Ron, after a desperate war of words with greaseball prime-time anchor Jack Lime (the very funny James Marsden), catapults this idea and sees his ratings sky-rocket. Jack Lime is forced to rename himself Jack Lame (or Lamé). While this idea gives the film a backbone, it avoids really tackling the repercussions of this new sensationalist approach, which was a kick in the groin to intelligent, serious news casting.

There's also a new romance that sees Brick Tamland thrown into the spotlight. While Carell is a very talented performer, the laughs he tries to squeeze out of his awkward scenes with love interest Chani (Kristen Wiig) seem desperate and forced, and these scenes frequently descend into unfunny anarchy or being weird for the sake of being weird. It is only in its final quarter when the film picks up on the laughs, making Ron blind and holed up in isolation. It's a bizarre tangent, even featuring a song about Doby the shark, but, alas, it works, and Ron even finds his humanity and bonds with his son, making it oddly sweet. This will not have the same success as the first film, which has since becomes a cult classic, and the fans certainly weren't appeased (the reviews on IMDb are outright angry), but it's simply not bad, and amusing enough throughout to warrant everyone at least giving it a fair shot.


Directed by: Adam McKay
Starring: Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Christina Applegate, Dylan Baker, Meagan Good, Judah Nelson, James Marsden, Kristen Wiig, Greg Kinnear
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #730: 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy' (2004)

Will Ferrell is a very funny man. He has the ability to squeeze comedy gold out of the raising of an eyebrow or a silly accent, and usually steals whatever film he appears in, regardless of how long he's in it for. Somehow, his movies tend to be bad, relying on juvenile behaviour and frat-house antics for laughs, which would be fine if any real thought was put into it. Anchorman is a sort of different, mixing childish humour with first-class improvisation from some of the most talented comedy performers working at the moment, and featuring one of Ferrell's most inspired creations. Based on real-life anchorman Harold Greene, who had a talent for sharp suits and a formidable 70's 'tache, Ron Burgundy is an egotistical, chauvinistic and narcissistic ass, but boy can he read the news.

In the male-dominated workspace of 70's 'action news', Burgundy and his troupe are the cream of the crop in San Diego. Burgundy delivers the news, Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) is the lecherous field reporter, 'Champ' Kind (David Koechner) is the loud-mouthed sexist sports reporter, and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) is an innocent with an IQ of 48, delivering the weather and being led astray by the groups antics. Everything seems harmonious until the arrival of the beautiful and ambitious Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). Ron falls for her and she for him, until the word 'diversity' is introduced into the newsroom, and Ron finds himself with a new co-anchor.

Ron thinks that 'diversity' is an old wooden ship used in the Civil War era, a joke no doubt the product of multiple takes and the actors playing around with their lines. Due to this heavy reliance of improvisation, the film is scattershot and random, and by playing with the rules of random, as many jokes fall flat as they cause you to burst out in fits of laughter. So for every spontaneous accapella version of 'Afternoon Delight' or Burgundy wailing over the loss of his beloved dog Baxter, we have Koecher trying to squeeze laughs out of an unfunny character or an extended joke about Fanatana wearing Sex Panther, a rare and banned after shave which just happens to smell awful.

Anchorman's main success comes from, surprisingly, Christina Applegate. It was one of the first modern comedies to really put some thought into its female character, and rather than her playing the role of whiny other half trying to get her man to behave and grow up, she is vital in bringing to life this dark era of male-dominated office spaces, and she accepts Ron for the buffoon that he is. In the ten years since its release, it has garnered a huge cult following, and led to the release of it's sequel, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues earlier this year. Though I don't share the hype surrounding this film, it's still a consistently funny oddity, and most probably Ferrell's best comedy work.


Directed by: Adam McKay
Starring: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Fred Willard, Vince Vaughn
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #665: 'The 40 Year-Old Virgin' (2005)

After decades of being dragged to the cinema by our better halves to watch the latest Meg Ryan or Hugh Grant pap, it was only a matter of time until men fought back in the rom-com genre. Director Judd Apatow, along with co-writer and lead star Steve Carell, went the extra mile and actually created a rom-com that is both genuinely romantic and laugh-out-loud hilarious, but one that members of both sex can actually enjoy. But amongst all the sweetness there are four guys talking like genuine guys. So, this includes lines like "you need to put the pussy on a pedestal!" and "you know how I know you're gay? You listen to Coldplay." The language is filthy, but the script is heartfelt.

Andy Stitzer (Carell) lives a simple life alone with his collection of valuable (and still boxed) action figures and his gaming chair, working in the stockroom of an electronic store. He also rides a bike to work and never socialises, leading his co-workers to naturally assume he's a serial killer. When they find themselves a man down for a poker game, David (Paul Rudd), Jay (Romany Malco) and Cal (Seth Rogen) invite Andy. After swapping freaky sex stories, it becomes clear that Andy is in fact a 40 year-old virgin, and so they make a vow to get him laid. Amongst his options are the girl from the bookshop Beth (Elizabeth Banks), who takes a liking to Andy after he takes Cal's advice, his horny boss Paula (Jane Lynch), and the spunky Trish (Catherine Keener), a woman who's just opened a store across the street.

The thing that The 40 Year-Old Virgin achieves most is how accurately it portrays its men. Sure, these are extreme versions of people we have come across before in our lives, but men generally talk crap and half-truths to each other about women, movies and computer games. The advice that David, Jay and Cal give is hardly helpful, and is based on their own half-remembered experiences that lead to the assumption that they are the ones that truly understands women. But they are all screwed up in their own way that their advice just leads to some amusing scenes, including the most famous scene of Andy having his chest waxed (which Carell really did, and he's the hairiest comedian since Robin Williams).

The film also succeeds in its honesty and its attention to detail. Andy isn't the badly-dressed, bespectacled nerd that has been seen in the likes of She's All That (1999), that once he's given a makeover, he's a hunk. He signals when he's turning his bike on an empty street and his Monday-morning what-I-did-at-the-weekend stories involve making an egg salad sandwich. He's relatable because he's real, so his quest to get his leg over becomes something ultimately more important. The supporting cast are all excellent, especially Malco, who I'm surprised hasn't gone on to bigger things, and Keener, who is surprisingly adorable after years of playing the bitch. Like many movies churned out by the Apatow machine, it's goes on for far too long, but that's easy to forgive when the film is this funny.


Directed by: Judd Apatow
Starring: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Leslie Mann, Jane Lynch
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie