With pretty much nothing but crap opening wide this weekend, but with two good looking Indies an hour away in a 5 screen Indie theater, I decided to go see them both in one trip. Turns out the two historical docu-dramas flowed together very well as a set, not to mention probably the most likely Indies to succeed during awards season. The reception for both by the respective (liberal weighted) audiences was effusive, following as they did after the longest lines for tickets I've seen in years.
Trumbo: Led by Bryan Cranston's sure to be multi-nominated performance, this is about the Hollywood blacklist scandal of the late 40s and 50s that was part of the first amendment violating House Unamerican Activities Committee/McCarthyism. But this focused the affects that witch hunt had on one individual and his family. The first half is somewhat off-putting since it dealt almost exclusively with the infamous congressional corruption, but barely touched on the hypocritical anti-capitalist communists who became very wealthy due to that very capitalism--an attitude that continues to this day. The second half dealing with how Trumbo worked around the blacklist earning academy awards via a surrogate for The Brave One (1956), (under a completely fictitious name), for Roman Holiday(1953) (which they presented in reverse order)(?), and finally under his own name for Exodus and Spartacus--though I suspect that Kubrick had more to do with that than Kirk Douglas as is portrayed. This second half with its energy and humor, is what makes the movie. The movie is especially hard on Edward G. Robinson, and pretty much puts John Wayne in his place. 8/10
Spotlight: Named for the Boston Globe's investigative unit, this is about the exposé of the sex abuse of minors scandal that's still ringing the Catholic Church's bells today. The draw, of course, is the details about how it happened, and the team is played by an especially infectious ensemble cast--though I gotta say Liev Schreiber dominates every scene he's in, even when he's just in the background. This, even more so than Trumbo, deals with a massive malignancy, though even more sinister due to its pervasive invisibility in plain sight, and which had to be known to exist by all Church insiders. Great movie as far as it goes, but it begs the question: when is the media, including Hollywood, gonna finally turn the "spotlight" on the double standard establishment oligarchy in D.C.? 9/10