Adam McKay’s new movie Vice played this weekend to media and guild members, and the buzz was incredibly positive. The film chronicles the rise of Vice President Dick Cheney, and while many prognosticators had the movie on their radars, it looks like McKay has delivered the goods. A lot of the praise is reserved for Christian Bale’s transformative performance as Cheney, but Variety’s Kristopher Tapley points out that Amy Adams, who plays Cheney’s wife Lynne, is likely to be in the Oscar race yet again:

But Bale isn’t the full story here, of course. It’s an inspired ensemble McKay has once again pulled together, from Amy Adams as Cheney’s wife Lynne (a Lady Macbeth-like figure) to Steve Carell’s irreverent Donald Rumsfeld to Oscar winner Sam Rockwell’s clueless George W. Bush. They and others should help secure a Screen Actors Guild bid for best ensemble, and Adams ought to be along for much of the awards season journey with Bale as well.

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Image via Matt Kennedy / Annapurna Pictures

Awards Daily also echoes the praise for Bale and Adams:

The blackest of black comedies ran for roughly two hours and did seem to hold its audience in its thrall throughout. Christian Bale is, as the trailers promised, astonishing as Dick Cheney. So good you really do forget you’re watching an actor. At times I even thought I was watching Lynne Cheney, played so well by Amy Adams. Adams has finally gotten to a point in her career where she can play a woman passing through middle and old age. Her Lynn is hard, loyal, and as cold as ice as her husband.

Gregory Ellwood over at The Playlist is also bullish on the film’s chances in other categories including Best Original Screenplay, Best Hair & Makeup, Best Picture, and possibly Best Supporting Actor for either Steve Carell or Sam Rockwell, who play Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush, respectively.

Some Oscar hopefuls are a lot of smoke and no fire (that seems to be the case for Mary Queen of Scots and On the Basis of Sex), but it looks like Vice is for real even if the buzz says it’s a bit of a hard watch (but it’s not like McKay’s previous movie, The Big Short, was particularly light).

Vice opens on December 25th.

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Image via Matt Kennedy / Annapurna Pictures
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Image via Annapurna Pictures

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