Properly dramatized and cast with perfection, “Vice” is a wild story about one of America’s most powerful, hands-on vice presidents, Dick Cheney. The film documents Cheney’s life from the early stages as a working man and soon to be CEO, all the way up to his time in the White House as George W. Bush’s right-hand man, who is ultimately portrayed to have done most of Bush’s dirty work for him. 

Many biopics, especially the ones that have to do with politics, sometimes lack the drama and plot twists needed to make the film more of an entertaining adventure rather than a total snooze fest. It is safe to say that Dick Cheney’s life is anything but boring, so the story keeps a steady pace and attempts to miraculously hold the audience’s attention for nearly the entire two hours and 12 minutes.

The excellent direction and original screenplay by Academy Award winner, Adam McKay, gives the film the stylish, edgy vibe that it needs to keep it fresh and intriguing. For those who have seen, or are fans, of McKay’s other award-winning film, “The Big Short” (2015) are practically guaranteed to enjoy this movie, seeing that the overall look of the film is tremendously similar and almost uncanny. For those who haven’t seen this previous film, you can expect “Vice” to be kind of a more peculiar film than what you are probably used to seeing in a big box office flick. 

The acting in “Vice,” as well as the complete makeover transformations that the actors went through for the film, are absolutely insane, to say the least — but in the best way possible, of course. All Golden Globe-nominated for their work in the political dramedy, Christian Bale plays Dick Cheney, Amy Adams plays Lynne Cheney, Sam Rockwell plays George W. Bush, and though not nominated like the rest of the cast, Steve Carell even makes scene-stealing appearances as Donald Rumsfield. 

Christian Bale was not only nominated for “Best Actor: Comedy or Musical” at the Golden Globes last Sunday but also took home the Globe, shocking critics in somewhat of an upset against Viggo Mortensen for “Green Book.” 

Bale’s performance as Cheney is nearly frightening because of how much he looks, sounds, and acts like him. Although he is great in this role, to say the least, I think that if he had not gone through such a big, accurate transformation, his performance would not have been deemed as great by critics and a win by the Hollywood Foreign Press. It is truly the hair, makeup, and extra 40 pounds that Bale gained for the role that makes his portrayal so Oscar-buzz worthy. Spoiler alert: He has a great chance at being nominated, but a zero percent chance at actually winning. Sorry, Christian —  enjoy your Golden Globe.

“Vice” is the type of film that people who are interested in political biopics, or biopics in general, will very much enjoy because of the crazy story that is Dick Cheney’s life and the many controversial things that happened in it. Keep in mind that the movie is rated R for language and a little bit of violence here and there, but other than that, I would recommend the film to anyone ages 15 and up that enjoy learning more about riotous true stories through film. 

“Vice” is definitely the kind of film that will make audience members go home and look up further information about the true story because it really is that mind-boggling of a film. But hey, who doesn’t enjoy learning something new? I give it a 7.5 out of 10.