The Big Picture · Interview

Adam McKay on ‘Vice,’ Power, Comedy, and Criticism | Interview (Ep. 114)

January 4, 2019/ 33 min/ Sean Fennessey

Sean Fennessey talks to Adam McKay about Vice, the 50-year story behind Dick Cheney, the heart attack he had after the shoot, and why this is the least cool movie he has made.

13 films across 1 segment.

AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.

Adam McKay on 'Vice'

Adam McKay on

Vice 2018

The subject. McKay set out to make a portrait of a man, then found the first act was really Lynne Cheney's, and had to fold in the 50-year rise of the Republican right around him. He cut a musical number and a teenage-love run that tested badly, reordered the opening around the DUI and 9/11, and says Hank Corwin's cutaways (fly fishing, a lion taking prey) doubled in the edit. Sourced from Jane Mayer, Ron Suskind, and Barton Gellman. He had a heart attack after the shoot.

Adam McKay on

The Big Short 2015

His pivot away from comedy, adapted from a book he loved after the script stalled at Plan B. He argues banks aren't polarizing the way Vice is, and that the financial collapse and the Republican revolution harmonize: deregulation let bank money buy off Congress.

Adam McKay on

Step Brothers 2008

His touchstone for making peace with hostile reviews. He and Will Farrell agreed up front that a fart joke meant no good notices; he jokes it landed 50 percent good, 50 percent bad.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy poster

Adam McKay on

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy 2004

Where the 16mm short films Lorne Michaels let him direct at SNL, with cameos from Buscemi, Ben Stiller, and Willem Dafoe, eventually led.

Adam McKay on

The Man Who Would Be King 1975

Named among his favorite movies as proof he'll watch anything.

Adam McKay on

Breaking Away 1979

Another lifelong favorite he rattles off.

Adam McKay on

One on One 1977

The Robby Benson movie, which he flags as a Bill Simmons favorite.

Adam McKay on

Airplane! 1980

Cited as the far end of his taste, right next to the prestige films.

Adam McKay on

Halloween 1978

"One of my all-time favorite movies."

Adam McKay on

GoodFellas 1990

His yardstick for whether Vice plays arch: he wonders if the Cheney-Rumsfeld no-bid-contract exchange reads like Paul Sorvino, or just like what they'd actually have said.

Adam McKay on

Idiocracy 2006

One of his all-time favorite comedies, which he says streaming and cable rescued from being lost.

Adam McKay on

Office Space 1999

Paired with Idiocracy as a comedy that only found its audience through cable and streaming.

Adam McKay on

You Were Never Really Here 2017

His pick for the last great thing he's seen. He praises Lynne Ramsay's fractured, impressionistic style on a straightforward script, the Joaquin Phoenix two-hander, and, on a 12-year-old level, that the weapon is a hammer.

Also mentioned raised along the way

In passing The Unknown Known

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV SuccessionSaturday Night Live

Books Dark Money (Jane Mayer)Invisible Hands (Kim Phillips-Fein)Democracy in Chains

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