Entertainment Weekly | ‘Trumbo’ Review

EW

How could a movie about a great screenwriter have such a terrible screenplay? In his first feature film script, John McNamara (writer for TV shows like Aquarius and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) adapted Bruce Cook’s 1977 biography Dalton Trumbo, and learning apparently nothing from the work of the two-time Oscar-winner, surmised that volcanic self-congratulation, stock characters, crass exposition, and relentless clichés would somehow make a successful movie.