Trumbo

Trumbo is currently streaming in Australia on Netflix, and in the US on Kanopy and Hoopla, and it rewards the patience it asks of you. The runtime earns every minute, with nothing here that feels like padding. A 7/10 rating says what the writing already makes obvious: this one works. Bryan Cranston anchors it with a performance that rewards close attention. Available now on Netflix — press play and find out why people keep recommending it.

Trumbo arrived without much fanfare and built its audience the hard way — through word of mouth. Trumbo trusts its audience to sit with discomfort instead of resolving it too quickly. The career of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo is halted by a witch hunt in the late 1940s when he defies the anti-communist HUAC committee and is blacklisted. The performances from Bryan Cranston and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje give it more weight than the premise alone would suggest. Trumbo came out in 2015. What elevates Trumbo is a refusal to let any character off the hook too easily. There is real craft here, even in the moments that do not fully land.

Viewers drawn to character-driven storytelling will find plenty to sit with in Trumbo. If you have run out of similar titles to watch, this is a strong next pick. Best experienced as a single, sustained watch from start to finish. Bryan Cranston's work here is the kind that gets referenced in career retrospectives. It makes everything else feel thin by comparison.

Trumbo was released in 2015, directed by Jay Roach. The full 124-minute film is available to watch now. Find exactly where it's streaming below, and TV Butler Pro makes it effortless to track your progress as you go. Just search the name, and Butler finds it instantly, tells you which service has it, and remembers exactly where you left off.