Trumbo
Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: November 6, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostLou LumenickNov 4, 2015
Bryan Cranston finally translates his critical acclaim for “Breaking Bad” into an Oscar-caliber performance in darkly comic Trumbo, playing an eloquent, witty screenwriter who bucked the Hollywood blacklist and triumphed. Read full review
83
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicSep 16, 2015
The film's MVPs are Bryan Cranston's dedicated performance as the title character, and, appropriately, John McNamara's jocular screenplay, with a terrific ensemble of supporters also along for the ride back to Hollywood's notorious past Read full review
80
Screen DailyAllan HunterSep 16, 2015
Bryan Cranston creates a potent sense of Trumbo as a reasonable man, full of charm, eloquence and principle and he is surrounded by a string of performances to savour. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 25, 2015
It's a period piece full of colorful characters, natty costumes, jaunty music. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 19, 2015
Cranston’s performance is the motor that runs Trumbo, and that motor never idles, never flags in momentum or magnetism or idealistic scorn. At its entertaining worst, the movie’s a high-spirited game of Hollywood dress-up. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 12, 2015
The great Bryan Cranston sinks his teeth into the title role and chews the scenery with such gusto I half-expected him to spit out a chunk of period-piece furniture before we were through. There’s a lot of ham and cheese in the performance, but it’s great fun to watch. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 12, 2015
Trumbo is breezy and pithy without ever undercutting the seriousness of the subject. A certain degree of wit is appropriate in a writer’s story, just as any Hollywood tale must at least have a whiff of absurdity, or else it can’t be true. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedNov 11, 2015
Bryan Cranston brings the complex personality of Trumbo to life with substance and humor. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 11, 2015
Trumbo is a warm and witty profile in courage. Read full review
75
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeNov 5, 2015
Roach and McNamara fall victim to the occasional phony biopic moment or straight-up moment of didacticism, but overall Trumbo is a lively history about the day-in-day-out drudgery of survival during oppressive times. Screenwriters are so rarely taken seriously by the film industry that it’s a nice switch to watch them be the heroes. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 12, 2015
Roach’s film may be light in places, even sugarcoated in others, but any reminder of the past and its impact on the future is a welcome one. Plus, we get a good Cranston performance in the bargain. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRebecca KeeganNov 5, 2015
Trumbo is timely in its portrayal of a moment when political speech is dangerously charged, yet unabashedly old-fashioned in the sincerity of its storytelling. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 5, 2015
A clean and agreeable biopic that restores some vitality to a fascinating episode in 20th-century cultural and political history. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneNov 2, 2015
The drama is stuck with that ethical rigor, and we are left with a near-heretical irony: thanks to this admiring tribute, our hero gets top billing at last, but was he not more beguiling, somehow, as a legendary figure in the shadows? Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerSep 16, 2015
What makes the movie work are the lively performances, both from the supporting cast and from Cranston, who sheds the mimicry and pontificating of earlier scenes to turn Trumbo into a wry, self-deprecating and somewhat cheeky older man, even if he continued to stand up for what was right. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianJeff BakerNov 19, 2015
Stick around for the credits, when the real Trumbo talks about the effect of the blacklist on his daughter. It's the real thing. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonNov 4, 2015
Trumbo’s writing was so terrific, the film emphasizes, that it outweighed his caustic personality, his unfashionable politics, and the career-threatening dangers of working with him. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 12, 2015
After a somewhat tedious and overly episodic first half...Trumbo becomes a far more successful movie. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireNov 12, 2015
Setting up a political drama in stereotypical black-hat/white-hat fashion results in enjoyably cartoonish villains like flamboyant gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (deliciously played by Helen Mirren) and the usual blacklist martyrs, but it also deprives the story of the nuance and complexity for which it cries out. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 4, 2015
Luckily, Trumbo has a powerhouse Bryan Cranston to light a fire under the moldier clichés in John McNamara's script. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinFeb 1, 2016
It feels terrestrial rather than cinematic, but the joy of Trumbo is in the heroism of its subject and an amazing performance from Cranston. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 25, 2015
Trumbo isn't monotonous, but it falls short of genius. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 4, 2015
Trumbo goes for a tone that’s more scrappy and inspirational, as this ousted ex-A-lister enlists his kids as couriers, builds a network of collaborators and wins two Academy Awards undercover. Read full review
60
The GuardianHenry BarnesSep 16, 2015
[Jay Roach] wants the film to be fun, while the story is serious. It’s a good idea and an admirable intention. But it does suffer the odd wobble. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 16, 2015
Trumbo may be clumsy and overly simplistic at times, but it’s still an important reminder of how democracy can fail (that is, when a fervent majority turns on those with different and potentially threatening values), and the strength of character it takes to fight the system. Read full review
58
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 16, 2015
Cranston has his moments and you have to laud his attention to detain in channeling Trumbo’s unique voice and mannerisms. Unfortunately, he’s so committed that his character borders on being a caricature. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 16, 2015
Trumbo works well enough as a general survey of Trumbo's life and career, a primer on a complicated man who endured a terrible injustice, but it fails to really engage with the material, to dig deep for significant themes and salient meanings Read full review
50
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneNov 4, 2015
Like Jay Roach's Game Change and Recount, the film's patina of relative apoliticism masks (or enables) its blandness of inquiry. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesNov 18, 2015
Trumbo certainly has pep. Theodore Shapiro’s jazzy score doesn’t just boast a tom-tom – you could choreograph it with pom-poms. Maybe Roach worried that general audiences wouldn’t cotton to a yellowing story about the Red Menace, so he ginned it up with a jazz-hands idea of midcentury Hollywood, with everyone mugging like it’s a lobby-card photo shoot Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 12, 2015
Trumbo is a film that at times can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. At its worst, it’s musty and awkward; at its best, it’s irreverent and funny. Unfortunately, it settles for the former more than the latter. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 5, 2015
It’s impossible to tell if the filmmakers don’t trust the audience or simply don’t have the chops, guts or heart to do this story justice. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlNov 3, 2015
The film fails as a portrait, and it's not much better at drama. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernNov 9, 2015
How could a movie about a great screenwriter have such a terrible screenplay? Read full review
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