The First "Vice" Trailer Finds Christian Bale Immersed in Another Oscar Campaign

Christian Bale in Vice

It continues to seem ridiculous, almost as much so as one of his broad comedies of yesteryear, but director Adam McKay has become an Oscar darling. With most of the Oscar season seemingly laid out with heavyweights, people have been holding out for his Dick Cheney film now called Vice. Considering how little presence it has had at film festivals, it's amazing to think of how anticipated the first trailer has been for months now. Well, it is here and from the looks of it, this is another Christian Bale performance primed for Oscar consideration. He looks immersed in the role to an impeccable degree, and the supporting cast doesn't look too bad either - filled with Oscar-nominees and winners who round out a cast of characters from one of the 21st century's most notorious American presidencies. To say the least, Vice looks like McKay is once again going to enjoy a cozy seat at the awards table.

As mentioned, the whole prestige thing is still a bit odd to sling onto McKay. His big films prior to The Big Short were broad comedies like Anchorman and The Other Guys - the latter of which was the closest he had gotten to ever being outwardly political. Over the closing credits, he showed a video about how a Ponzi scheme works. Little did audiences know that it would be the blueprint for his Oscar-winning film and surprise hit The Big Short: a film that took the 2008 housing crash and made it accessible to audiences who probably don't know one iota about economics. To say the least, it left a mark and set him up for a new stage of his career - and one that may unfortunately see the days of his Will Ferrell-lead, slapstick and dumb humor films a product of yesteryear.

Then again, it's hard to tell what angle he will go with in Vice. It's arguably one of the most notorious partnerships in American politics of the 21st century. However, The Big Short had an underlying current of humor to soften the disturbing elements. One can imagine then when addressing the life of Vice President Dick Cheney, that it will be full of that terror that many felt towards him, but also a lot of that comedy that McKay is known for. After the trailer, it's still unclear how the film will play out, also whether it's a biopic or one specific story from the man's life. However, it looks to be more of a conventional straightforward drama from McKay than The Big Short was - and that may be for the best.

Check out the trailer below:

Looks pretty solid. Here's the plot description according to IMDb:

The story of Dick Cheney, the most powerful Vice President in history, and how his policies changed the world as we know it.

Now there's the obvious questions to come. Will this actually be a serious awards contender? It has been building up for months as one of the last big surprises. Given how beloved The Big Short was, it's not hard to see this joining the ranks (for starters, the trailer looks a lot better). However, there's already some concern over the subject matter, as audiences have been tepid to recognize Bush-era topics. The most notable example is the 2008 Bush biopic W., from director Oliver Stone. While I really liked it, the consensus was that it was a mess tonally and sunk the chances of getting Josh Brolin a nomination for a fairly impeccable performance. While the times have changed, it does seem like talking about corruption in politics may still be a bit of a gamble. With that said, Vice does have a great presentation going on.

Among the things that are most impressive and noteworthy is the thing that has been hyped the most: Bale's performance. While this is just a trailer and doesn't have much in a whole scene, it's compelling to watch him take on another enigmatic figure so effectively. It has been awhile since Bale has been in a movie that has required a transformation of his kind, and at points it's hard to even tell that it's him. Still, he leads an impressive cast of characters who will likely be in awards consideration. The only question is how much of it. Considering that Sam Rockwell is coming off of an Oscar-winning year in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, it's easy to see him being a bigger focus as well. Also, could this be the film that gets Amy Adams her overdue Oscar? There's not a lot of her here, but one could imagine.

Vice has a lot going for it upon first glance. It's a rich subject from a director who's coming off his most critically acclaimed work. Maybe this is the new McKay - someone who will be in Oscar consideration no matter what. All things considered,it would be interesting to see a late entry into this conversation, and Vice may be the film to do it. In a season that already feels like it already has the base formed for what will even be nominated, it will be nice to see some December surprises in the mix. However, releasing it around Christmas will be a big gamble. Who wants to see political movies during the holidays? While there have been those few that have done well at the box office (The Wolf of Wall Street), it does seem like it could get swallowed whole by cheerier competition. It's hard to say right now. Get back to me when you have a few film festivals worth of reviews to consider.