Vice · reception & legacy
2018 · Adam McKay
How Vice has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Landed in 2018 as a genuine critical split — eight Oscar nominations on one hand, some of the year's harshest reviews on the other — and time hasn't healed it: it's still the McKay film people point to when arguing about where his post-Big Short style tipped over.
What's debated
The forever-debate: is McKay's fourth-wall-breaking, editorializing style bracing political satire or a smug lecture — with Bale's performance usually granted immunity by both sides.
Its footprint
Christian Bale accepting his Golden Globe by thanking Satan 'for giving me inspiration on how to play this role' became an instant awards-season legend, and his unrecognizable transformation is a staple of every 'actors who changed their bodies' listicle.
Where it stands
Remembered less as a film than as Exhibit A in the 'great transformation, divisive movie' discourse — the performance is canon, the film around it is the argument.