True story. Here we go again. It seems lately that’s the rave. True stories galore.
So here we go.
First off, all cinephiles should go watch this film. Why? Because its about a dark time of the film industry and how we got out of it.
Secondly, Bryan Cranston is really enjoyable to watch here. He had a bit of Walter White in him but not too much to overbear Trumbo, if that makes any sense. I just like watching him do anything really, so I’m biased.
The supporting cast is a hit or miss. Sometimes they’re really great and other not so much. I was pretty excited to see Louis CK in this but I felt like he just played himself a bit too much so it was just seeing Louie in Trumbo rather than the person he was playing. I wish he played someone else just so I could see another side of him. But regardless of that, the Louie and Cranston did have chemistry and had a great scene about a farm. Diane Lane had great chemistry with Cranston and really sold the whole ‘I will support you no matter what ‘ type of wife. I really enjoyed the scenes with Elle Fanning and Cranston; I really dug their relationship. I also really enjoyed Helen Mirren’s performance because it was a side of her that I have not seen before. I mean sure she was tough and serious in the Red series but to see her being so conniving is interesting. John Goodman was himself again, nothing wrong with that as his temperament was a good foil against the rest of the cast.
This film was not as enjoyable as I hoped it to be but it was enjoyable nevertheless. I guess it was just the whole waiting of getting to the meat of it. The slow burn of getting into the state of mind of that era and the issues at hand. It started off well when characters and things were introduced. But the pacing was a bit off when Cranston was behind bars. Perhaps, it was the lack of his performance but I remember him showing up from time to time but it just didn’t feel the same as the beginning when he was not in jail. Fault of the supporting cast? Perhaps. I mean the first half had some good performances but the latter half was much more entertaining. There is a clear conflict form the beginning but it felt like they were telling you the simple progression of Event A to Event B.
In terms of cinematography, I really enjoyed some of the transitions they did in here. Picture a shot where its looking at a black and white tv (it totally just feels like you’re watching tv) and then it transitions to being actually in that scene but in black and white and then the fade to full colour. It really added a sense of realism to the times. Beyond that, dialogue scenes were pretty standard though I am surprised that this is the guy who directed those Austin Power movies.
I mean all in all, this is a movie for performance rather than a piece where you can appreciate the whole thing. Again though, this movie makes me wish it was a documentary rather than a dramatization of a real life event. I think that’s the actual trend now. People will only watch movies about these topics if they are movies rather than documentaries. With this comes the danger of merely showing you what happened during those events and not having an actual film for entertainment. One could argue that you can’t change the truth or else someone’s gonna get offended; which is the reason where I highly preferred INSPIRED rather than based so then at least the writers’ have some legroom to like make things a bit more exciting.
With all that said, Trumbo is worth your while.
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