Vice
Directed and written by Adam McKay
Produced and distributed by Annapurna Pictures
Wildlife
Produced by June Pictures and Nine Stories Productions
Directed by Paul Dano
Screenplay by Paul Dana and Zoe Kazan adapted from Richard Ford’s novel
Distributed by IFC Films
In Vice, director Adam McKay takes a hatchet to Dick Cheney, joining a long line of detractors of our 46th Vice President. This is too bad. Not because Cheney deserves better. As one of the primary planners of the 2003 Iraq invasion, he clearly deserves whatever obloquy can be thrown on him. But rather than taking a hatchet to his reputation, McKay would have done better to make his case against Cheney soberly and let the facts speak for themselves. Instead, his film gives those determined to see Cheney in a favorable light a means to discredit it. They are already dismissing this film as the work of a political enemy, which it clearly is.
Cheney is a schemer, but then who isn’t in Washington, D.C.? While serving in four administrations, he was continuously focussed on acquiring power. And he found ways to get it. First, he attached himself to Donald Rumsfeld. Later, he attached himself to George W. Bush. Both presented opportunities to...