Reminder: a compelling protagonist doesn’t have to likeable, or good, they just have to be interesting. Dick Chaney was, and remains, an evil bastard, but he and his rise to power behind the throne is fascinating nonetheless. Adam McKay approaches political biography with the same cheeky glint in his eye as he did the World Financial Crash with THE BIG SHORT, but despite some killer one-liners this is a more serious-minded affair. The performances by Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Steve Carrell carry the film through some serious stylistic and tonal whiplash. For a film based mostly on conjecture and word-of-mouth, you can buy most of this could have happened based on how screwed up the world is now. Worse than any one thing the man did is the political climate he helped perpetuate, as hammered home in a bile-inducing post-credits scene set in a particularly vocal think tank. SSP