Trumbo (Jay Roach, 2015)

Dalton Trumbo was at one point the highest-paid screenwriter, until the House Un-American Activities Committee got him blacklisted for his Communist beliefs and forced him to spend ten years writing execrable B-movies, as well as Oscar winners such as Roman Holiday, in the shadows under pseudonyms.
We've been here many times before: Hollywood does feel comfortable dealing with the era of McCarthyist repression from the perspective of its own denizens. Nevertheless, Trumbo is competently made with a dry humour that is usually lacking from approaches to the subject but is in keeping with the farcical nature of the events of the time. It is also well served by its cast, except for the decision in a few cases, such as the depiction of Kirk Douglas, to find lookalikes instead of more subtle portrayals. But it would all be pretty easily forgotten without Bryan Cranston as Trumbo, an avuncular and self-deprecating moral crusader on one hand but also a man who wants recognition and material comforts for his family: his performance is the glue that holds the film together and raises it above the standard persecuted artist biopic.

6/10