Trumbo (2015)

Frank King: Wanna keep me from hiring union? I'll go downtown, hire a bunch of winos and hookers. It doesn't matter. I make garbage! You wanna call me a pinko in the papers? Do it! None of the people that go to my fucking movies can read!

Dalton Trumbo: [Presenting his new script to the producers] Oh, one problem though.
Hymie King: Expensive?
Dalton Trumbo: Worse. It's good.

Dalton Trumbo: He's threatening to put my name on it.

Dalton Trumbo: Many questions can be answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ only by a moron or a slave.

I'm going to push aside that the actual plot of Trumbo is substandard. Bio-pics often lack narrative structure, it can be part of their charm. If we fall in love with the performance, the character, the writing, and their overarching struggles, holes in structure, time continuity, and dramatic tension can be forgiven. And in the case of Trumbo, I forgive most of them.

Trumbo is really about underappreciated genius getting its due.. and both Dalton Trumbo and Bryan Cranston deserve serious consideration amongst the greats. My first introduction to Bryan Cranston was as the zany goofy dad with incredible back hair on Malcom in the Middle. Comedy is one of the highest forms of genius and Bryan Cranston has chops. I actually didn't know too much about Dalton Trumbo before seeing the film.  I knew he looked a little like Dr. Seuss in old age, smoked constantly, was related to communism, and wrote Roman Holiday. Thanks to this bio pic, now and I and hopefully many others know a lot more. To repecting true giants.

I'll take a moment to to go over the little things that I thought made Bryan Cranston's Trumbo magic.

• The voice
• consistent husckieness from tar build up is hard to replicate
• The effortless whiticisms
•  Writing a witty line is easy. Delivering a witty line and not making the audience hate you as a snob is hard. 
• The way one drinks and smokes
• In the film, Trumbo has a beverage in his hand most of the time and tobacco all of the times (like The Dude), and it is impressive to watch him subconsciously use these vices as an extension of his character. 
• The controlled look he projects when dealing with morons
• I've been told I do a poor job of masking my emotions when necessary. Bryan Cranston is a master of it. 
• Sheer genius
• The smartest man in the room, and he knows it. 

On a scale of a cracked facade to foundation mold, I give Trumbo 3.6 stars out of 5 stars.  

Dean O'Gorman please be in more things.