Trumbo (2015)

My Review

“Trumbo” is a biographical drama film about the life of one of Hollywood’s most talented screenwriters, Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976), who faced blacklisting from about 1947 to 1960. Director Jay Roach (“Meet the Parents” 2000) put together a classy production basically featuring “only the facts” without bitterness or sarcasm. The excellent screenplay by John McNamara was based on “Dalton Trumbo,” the 1977 biography by Bruce Alexander Cook.

Marvelous performance abound featuring Brian Cranston as Trumbo, Diane Lane as his wife, Elle Fanning as his daughter, Mattie Liptak as his son, Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper, John Goodman as producer Frank King, Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson, Alan Tudyk as screenwriter Ian Hunter, David James Elliot as John Wayne, Richard Portnow as Louis B. Mayer, Dean O’Gorman as Kirk Douglas, and Christian Berkel as Otto Preminger. “Trumbo” was a box office bomb for Groundswell Productions and Bleeker Street Media. It received one Oscar nod for Best Actor (Cranston).