“Trumbo,” June 4, 2016 (2015), DVD. The Cold War blacklist is the subject of this historical drama that follows screenwriter/novelist and active Communist Party member, Dalton Trumbo, from the top of Hollywood, to prison for contempt of Congress, and a decade of working through fronts. It’s a traditional Hollywood narrative of principle, betrayal, love, and redemption but it’s worth watching despite its occasional excessive earnestness. Then again, maybe Trumbo did think and speak like that. Bryan Cranston exudes political sincerity and moral superiority over those who buckled before the diseased gossip viper, Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren, be still my heart), John Wayne, Ronald Reagan and other super-patriot power brokers working hand-in-glove with HUAC. Edward G Robinson (Michael Stuhlbarg) embodies all who betrayed themselves and their friends. Trumbo insisted on and received loyalty from his perfect wife (Diane Lane), daughter Nicola (Elle Fanning) and his other kids at great cost to them all while he worked the system for the likes of schlock producer Frank King (the wonderful John Goodman). Others, such as Arlen Hird (Louis CK) hung tough and lost more, but Trumbo’s persistence helps undo this travesty of “un-American” abuse and political witch-hunting even as he won two Oscars (Roman Holiday, Brave One) that he could not collect. Not an easy guy, his all-but-acknowledged public secret eventually falls apart when Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger out him in credits for Spartacus and Exodus. Yes, that’s a spoiler of sorts, but no more so than saying Lincoln gets shot at the end of the movie in Lincoln. History is sort of like that. It’s worth watching despite its sincerity and predictability. It’s always worth remembering it can and did happen here, and may yet happen here again.