Film Reviews: ‘Sex’ inspires, ‘Vice’ is weird

“So I Just Saw This Movie ...” Millennials Talk Cinema|

Politics is heating up the big screen this season.

Out of the dozens of films currently in the running for Oscar votes right now, several of them tackle serious political or social issues (“BlackkKlansman,” “Green Book,” “Beautiful Boy,” “Boy Erased”), and do so with plenty of energy, invention, passion and humor, not to mention a noticeable and necessary emphasis on keeping the entertainment values high.

Add to those films mentioned above two additional entries now viewable at local cinemas. Mimi Leder’s “On the Basis of Sex” and Adam McKay’s “Vice.” Both are based on true stories torn from the pages of not-too-distant history. Each one features script, direction and performances almost certain to earn Oscar nominations when the Academy Award candidates are announced later this month.

“Vice,” covering the rise of former Vice President Dick Cheney, features Christian Bale as Cheney, Amy Adams as his wife Lynne, Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfield and Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush. Director McKay also helmed “Anchorman” and “The Big Short.”

“On the Basis of Sex” stars Felicity Jones as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, focusing on a series of events from early in her life as a lawyer. It marks the second Ginsburg-focused movie released this year, following the hit documentary “RBG,” itself a likely nominee for Best Feature Documentary.

Here’s what two critics from our pool of young, local film reviewers have to say.

ON THE BASIS OF SEX (PG-13)

Amber-Rose Reed

I was once fired for not smiling enough.

I was seventeen, introverted, and bookish, which you’d think would make me an ideal tutor. Apparently not. I learned to smile.

I’ve never been fired again.

Women are told to smile a lot. Midway through “On the Basis of Sex,” Felicity Jones’ Ruth Bader Ginsberg practices oral arguments in front of the mirror. “Would it kill you to smile?” a man asked her earlier. So she practices smiling along with the recitation of tax code. It’s an eerily familiar action, even though the events of the film took places decades ago.

“On the Basis of Sex” is deliberate in its scripting and staging to show the casual ways women can be sidelined or isolated. In one scene, Sam Waterston’s law school dean refers to the law students at his table as “colleagues and ladies,” discussing the expectations of Harvard men. This could have slid the film from biopic into stiff moralizing, but the performances feel very natural, from frazzled caretaker Charlie (Chris Mulkey) to Armie Hammer’s eternally smitten Martin Ginsberg.

I don’t blame him for being smitten.

Jones’ Ruth is passionate and brilliant and questions throughout whether she’s enough to complete what she set out to do, but is unable to stop trying.

I’m so glad the real-life RBG never did.

VICE (R)

Katie Wigglesworth

I have to start by saying “Vice” is weird.

It’s deliberately jumbled, combines many different elements, mixes metaphors with reckless abandon - and I loved every angry minute of it. The movie takes some huge creative swings, and for me they really worked.

But it may not be a hit for everyone.

“Vice” is a neon collage of character study, heavy political satire and massively stylized editing. There is an element of the classic monster movie in the way McKay frames Cheney’s rise to power, all the while never losing sight of the fact that, at the root of all his terrible deeds, the terrifying part is he is just a man. Careful time is spent stripping down and humanizing Cheney in order to effectively illustrate how monstrous his choices were and how conniving, obstructive, and powerful he became.

This treatment, combined with the masterful acting of the all-star cast, is that special recipe for a damn entertaining movie. Bale, Adams and Carell are compellingly enigmatic, Rockwell eerily perfect, and Pill a brief but memorable talent in every scene.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but there is a narrator who acts as a framing device for the film, and the way that connection is revealed I found to be another effective layer of commentary to the piece as a whole. Angry, righteous, thrilling, and haphazard in ways I found striking and enjoyable, “Vice” is a darkly satirical political dissection I highly recommend you check out as soon as possible.

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