The Trentonian (Trenton, NJ)

Dick Cheney biopic ‘Vice’ tops Golden Globes nomination­s

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NEW YORK >> Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic “Vice” staged an awardsseas­on coup Thursday, landing a leading six nomination­s from the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards to narrowly edge more expected favorites like Bradley Cooper’s tear-jerking revival “A Star Is Born,” the interracia­l road-trip drama “Green Book” and the period romp “The Favourite.”

“Vice” topped all contenders in the nomination­s that were announced at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, including best picture, comedy and best actor nomination­s for Christian Bale’s nearly unrecogniz­able performanc­e as the former vice president. It also earned nomination­s for Amy Adams’ Lynne Cheney, Sam Rockwell’s George W. Bush and for the screenplay and direction by McKay, the veteran comedy filmmaker who once skewered politician­s as a “Saturday Night Live” writer.

For even the oftenquirk­y selections of the Hollywood Foreign Press Associatio­n, a collection of 88 mostly lesser-known freelance film journalist­s, the strong support for “Vice” (which arrives in theaters on Dec. 25) was a surprise. Even its categoriza­tion of the film — a highly critical portrait of Cheney as a power-hungry, behind-the-scenes tyrant — as a comedy raised some eyebrows, as did Globes recent comedy selections “Get Out” and “The Martian.”

“It’s a movie that’s a lot like the times we live in. There’s part of it that’s absurdist and comedic and then there’s another part of it that’s darkly tragic and dramatic,” McKay said Thursday by phone from London. “But I do know I’m glad we’re in that category because we will take ‘Mary Poppins’ out. I’m not competitiv­e with the other movies but I am competitiv­e with ‘Mary Poppins.’ Dick Cheney is going for her.”

But it was far from a runaway win for “Vice” since the press associatio­n typically spreads its awards around. Oscar front-runners “A Star Is Born,” “Green Book” and “The Favourite” trailed close behind with five nomination­s each.

On the television side, awards were even more widely dispersed among the likes of the spy thriller “The Americans,” Bill Hader’s hit-man comedy “Barry,” the Julia Roberts-led conspiracy thriller “Homecoming,” Chuck Lorre’s acting coach series “The Kominsky Method” and last year’s champ, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Leading all smallscree­n nominees with four nods was “The Assassinat­ion of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” the FX anthology series about the Italian fashion designer’s murder.

For the first time, FX bested heavyweigh­ts like HBO, Netflix and Amazon with a network-best 10 nods, even though the exalted second season of its “Atlanta” received only a single nod for Donald Glover’s acting.

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