Trumbo

For F*** Magazine

TRUMBO 

Director : Jay Roach
Cast : Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alan Tudyk, Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje, Dean O’Gorman, David James Elliott, Christian Berkel
Genre : Drama
Run Time : 124 mins
Opens : 25 February 2016
Rating : PG13 (Coarse Language)

How agonising would it be to write something so spectacular and widely-lauded, yet be forcibly denied credit? This reviewer wouldn’t know because he’s never written anything nearly that good, but Dalton Trumbo (Cranston) certainly knew that feeling.

It is the late 1940s in Hollywood and Trumbo is highly in demand as a screenwriter. He is a member of the American Communist Party, he is one of the “Hollywood ten”, a group of screenwriters subpoenaed to testify before Congress. Trumbo is ostracised as his relationship with his wife Cleo (Lane) and three children is put under immense strain. Trumbo becomes a target of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Mirren) and his disavowed by his friend, actor Edward G. Robinson (Stuhlbarg) so Robinson can protect his own career. Trumbo is unable to find work after being blacklisted, so he lets his friend Ian McLellan Hunter (Tudyk) take credit for Roman Holiday, which eventually wins an Academy Award. Gradually, rumours begin to swirl surrounding Trumbo’s clandestine ghost-writing. As the likes of Kirk Douglas (O’Gorman) and Otto Preminger (Berkel) hire Trumbo to craft screenplays for them, Trumbo inches closer to finally getting the credit he is due.

            It’s no secret that Hollywood loves movies about itself, and as a biopic about a prominent Hollywood figure, set against the backdrop of Cold War political turmoil, Trumbo does come off as Oscar bait. It’s a noble story of a stridently principled and talented man who risks everything to stand by his ideals. It is the hope of the filmmakers that audiences at large will find something in this story to identify with, because Trumbo often plays a little too “inside baseball” to be readily accessible. It’s not a difficult story to understand and Dalton Trumbo does deserve to have his story told, but if one isn’t that big a cinephile, specifically of the era in Hollywood during which Trumbo and his peers were active, Trumbo can be difficult to get into. This might sound disparaging and rest assured we don’t mean it that way, but Trumbo does feel like a film made for HBO. Director Jay Roach and star Cranston will next collaborate on one such HBO film, the Lyndon B. Johnson biopic All The Way.

            John McNamara adapted the biography Dalton Trumbo by Bruce Alexander Cook into this film. It seems that any writer tackling a script about a titan in the same field would be painting a target of considerable size on his own back. Adding to the risk is the fact that such revered classics as Roman Holiday, The Brave One and Spartacus are not only referred to, but are key components of the story. There is a righteous indignation that McNamara brings out in his script, but Trumbo says in a speech that there were “no heroes and villains” while the witch-hunt for “commies” was ongoing, yet several characters do feel exaggerated in the name of artistic license. Director Roach is known for helming comedies such as the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents trilogies as well as Borat and The Campaign. Perhaps the closest he’s come to directing a drama is the HBO film Game Change, about Sarah Palin’s vice-presidential bid. While there are no obvious missteps in his direction, perhaps the material could have benefitted from a defter touch.

            The ace up Trumbo’s sleeve is Trumbo himself, brilliantly portrayed by Cranston. For audiences who only knew him as bumbling dad Hal from Malcolm in the Middle, Cranston made the world collectively drop its jaws with his staggering, indelible Walter White in Breaking Bad. Cranston’s Trumbo is not a boring hero, he can be frustratingly stubborn and ornery but that twinkle in his eye and the spark of true giftedness draws us to him.

Leading the supporting cast, Lane is wonderfully convincing as a woman of the 50s. She handles the role, particularly the scenes in which Cleo confronts her husband about being swallowed up by his ghost-writing and becoming hostile towards his family, with strength and grace. Elle Fanning portrays Trumbo’s eldest daughter Nikola, and her relationship with her father is contentious but understandably so. Louis C.K. and Alan Tudyk, both more often associated with comedic roles, both deliver solid dramatic turns. O’Gorman and Berkel’s impressions of Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger respectively are entertaining and just broad enough. Goodman is charismatically boorish and Mirren chomps down on the role of the catty, flamboyant gossip columnist with great relish.

            Trumbo is a biographical drama set in Hollywood with a talented actor in the lead role just waiting for the kudos to roll on in. In that regard, it’s a safe albeit not especially satisfying awards season offering. For those already enamoured with the period, the 50s style and décor might be eye-catching, but director Roach doesn’t do quite enough to hook the audience in and transport them right into the thick of 50s Hollywood. There’s earnestness aplenty, but a disappointing lack of pizazz.

Summary: Star Bryan Cranston is firing on all cylinders, but because it is only moderately successful at breathing life into the history it depicts, Trumbo holds the audience at arm’s length.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

The Campaign movie review

For F*** Magazine, Singapore

THE CAMPAIGN

2012

Starring: Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott

Directed by: Jay Roach

It has been said that politics is show-business for ugly people; and an election year is as good as any for politics and show-business to properly collide. Jay Roach, who has helmed his fair share of comedies (the Austin Powers movies, Meet the Parents) and political films (Recount, Game Change) takes the reins and lets Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis loose; the shenanigans guaranteed to abound. As the tagline on the poster goes, “may the best loser win”.

Ferrell plays Cam Brady, Congressman of North Carolina’s 14^th District who has gone uncontested for four terms and is about to take his fifth, with his loyal campaign manager Mitch (Sudeikis) helping him along. However, he suffers an embarrassing scandal and corrupt businessmen the Motch Brothers (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) aim to capitalize on this by sponsoring their own candidate to run against him. Enter Marty Huggins (Galifianakis), the son of their associate Raymond (Brian Cox). Huggins is slovenly, slow-witted, genteel and good-hearted – everything Brady is not. Naturally, the slick career politician underestimates his inept opponent and writes him off.

The Motch brothers dispatch expert campaign manager and image consultant Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott) to overhaul the Huggins family, wife Mitzi (Sarah Baker) included and coaches Marty in creating an appealing facade to his voters. His poll numbers are also boosted when Cam punches a baby by mistake, and both parties get on with the mudslinging. It appears that in the midst of such fiascos as Cam getting bitten by a snake in a church, Marty shooting Cam in the leg with a rifle and various audacious campaign ads, Cam may be growing a conscience and Marty may be reluctantly letting go of his. In the background, the scheming Motch brothers are edging closer to their shady master plan and the two candidates may have to put down their swords and realise what really matters in their lives.

If you’re in need of a laugh or two, take part in this campaign. It is, first and foremost, a comedy, and is successful in that regard. Outrageous moments unfold in what’s presented as our world, established via cameos by news personalities such as Wolf Blitzer, Piers Morgan and Chris Matthews as themselves. It provides some grounding for several gut-busting sequences of outlandish humour which clearly couldn’t take place in the real world – though seeing how crazy American politics can get, we can’t be sure of that. Comedies of this nature can sometimes fall into a pattern of predictability when one can telegraph the gags a mile away, and while many of the best bits are in the trailers, there are still some moments that caught this reviewer delightfully off guard. “Never work with children or animals,” goes the quote attributed to W.C. Fields – thing is, children and animals are ripe sources of humour and the film knows this very well. The awkward scene where Marty has his wife and two sons own up to any skeletons in their closets while at the dinner table is the height of cringe comedy, and Marty’s two pugs (whom Cam labels as “Chinese dogs”) are funny even when they just sit there. There’s also a priceless cameo from a popular animal star who has gained fame in the past year for his role in an Oscar-winning film.

Being centred on a political campaign (hence the title) the film’s two most important assets are its leads. Ferrell and Galifianakis have made their names as cinematic schmucks – two different kinds of schmucks, but schmucks nonetheless. Ferrell’s Cam Brady is all haughty pandering, his overly-coiffed hair the best display of his hubris. Galifianakis augments the timbre and cadence of his voice to come off as the pudgy, odd, lovable idiot who pays little attention to his self image. Galifianakis’ uncle Nick actually ran for Congress in North Carolina, so he has some personal history there. When the two clash, it’s a real hoot to watch and it is oddly satisfying to see Marty one-up Cam after the latter has dealt out so much shame to him.

The show is almost entirely taken from out under both their noses by Dylan McDermott as Tim Wattley. The handsome actor, best known from TV’s The Practice, is suave, tough, decisive and almost omnipresent as the ‘magical’ campaign manager and Mr Fix-it. He’s never seen outside of a sharp suit or stylish leather jacket and invades the private space of Huggins with no qualms whatsoever. It’s not an inherently ultra-funny part, but McDermott plays it just right – not too flat and not wildly over-the-top – such that he manages to steal Ferrell and Galifianakis’ thunder. On the other camp, Sudeikis is pretty good too as Cam’s campaign manager Mitch. He’s playing the straight man to Ferrell, in essence, who has his head screwed on tighter than Cam does and whose advice Cam often blithely ignores. Sudeikis’ moment to shine is when Mitch has to mime the words to the Lord’s Prayer when Marty puts Cam on the spot, the latter having forgotten how the prayer goes. It’s a bit of a pity that veterans Brian Cox, John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd are somewhat wasted in their limited roles, though.

The main point of contention with The Campaign is how very broad the comedy can be at times. It seems that Roach takes a baseball bat to the hide of the American political system, when in some instances a sharp needle would have worked better instead. The movie often opts for cruder situations more likely to draw a reaction and ends up sacrificing some degree of insight in the process. A political comedy would probably be more suited to a darker tone and jabs of a subtler and more elegant nature, as opposed to the post-Apatow comic stylings on display here. Don’t get us wrong, it is still very funny, just not as biting or observant as it could have been, given the material and timing of its release.

SUMMARY: The Campaign promises laughs and doles them out in spades, but doesn’t use its platform to examine and scrutinize the system via its comedic lens as well as it could have.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong