Movie tip

Vice

Adam McKay’s gonzo approach to moviemaking succeeded wonderfully in “The Big Short,” his take on the 2007 housing meltdown and financial crash. A similar gleefully unconventional approach, though, doesn’t work in “Vice,” the film McKay wrote and directed about former veep Dick Cheney. Yes, the mix of absurd comedy and too-weird-to-be-anything-but-true history are here, as are the fourth-wall breaks and so on. But “Vice” has little depth or sense of exploration. It just trots out examples of dastardly behavior by Cheney. While Christian Bale does his usual freakishly-on-point disappearing act, as he morphs into Cheney, "Vice" doesn’t offer any fresh insights into the man himself.