Set during the McCarthy era and based on true events: Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was a successful Hollywood screenwriter, who soon found himself blacklisted for having joined the Communist Party and was unable to sell screenplays. Writing under a pseudonym Trumbo won Oscars for "Roman Holiday" and "The Brave One." Also with Michael Stuhlbarg, Diane Lane, Laura Flannery, Louis C.K., Helen Mirren, David James Elliott and Alan Tudyk. Directed by Jay Roach. [2:04]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A man is stripped naked and searched in jail (we see his chest, abdomen and buttocks (genitals are not visible); a guard instructs the man to lift his genitals and to cough when he bends over and spreads his buttocks. A man is shown sitting in a bathtub with water covering his bare body to the mid-abdomen in a couple of scenes (his chest is visible). Women are shown wearing low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage and bare backs.
► A woman kisses a man on the cheek in a couple of scenes. A husband and his wife kiss in a few scenes.

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A man swings a baseball bat at another man and presses it against his throat, after breaking some glass. A man throws a drink in another man's face and walks away. A man is seen sitting on the ground with a bloody face and a torn jacket (presumably after a beating) while another man holds a gun on him and they talk (this is a movie scene being filmed). A man punches another man (this is a movie scene).
► Two men argue bitterly about one of the men not having fought in WWII. Two men argue bitterly about a screenwriters' strike in Hollywood. We see people with signs, picketing and chanting for higher wages. A woman threatens a man and tells him that she will publish names and a story about his unwillingness to fire communists. A man threatens another man in prison. "GET OUT" is spray-painted on the wall of a house and dead animals are seen floating in a swimming pool as a young girl prepares to go swimming, but stops and screams. Members of a family argue about work. A teen girl punches a punching bag to express her frustration with her father. A wife confronts her husband and calls him a bully. A man in prison for contempt of congress sees another man in jail for tax evasion and says something about the other man being the one who actually committed a crime.
► A man is shown recovering in a hospital and it is implied that he has had a lung removed. A man coughs repeatedly and deeply and says that he has cancer and is choosing not to receive treatment. A man says goodbye to his children as he leaves to serve jail time. A man in prison says that he got 20 years for killing a man who was robbing his bar. A man argues with another man and says, "If you are going to hit me..."A man says that he would gun someone dead. A man is charged with contempt of Congress and goes to prison. A man talks about someone else selling his soul. A man in a movie tells a woman that if she putts her hand in a hole in a wall it will be bitten off; he puts his hand in the hole and pretends to be bitten and she slaps him on the arm. A man talks about an alien love story. A man talks about bullfights and that we cry when the bull dies. A man says, "I wouldn't blame you if you spit in my face." A teen girl cries and complains about her father and how he treats her. A man talks about being covered with the blood of his friends. A man says, "The only good communist is a dead communist."
► We understand that a man has died and we see his family gathered at a graveside funeral.
► A man hauls raw meat over his shoulder and we see blood on a towel. Ashes fall on a man's bare abdomen while he smokes in a bathtub (he does not appear to be burned).

LANGUAGE 7 - About 20 F-words, 3 sexual references, 25 scatological terms, 6 anatomical terms, 8 mild obscenities, 1 derogatory term for African-Americans, 1 derogatory term for Jewish people, name-calling (traitor, Nazis, moron, stupid, cockroaches, slave, dangerous radical, subversive, Satan, idiot, nympho, bastard, snitch), 3 religious profanities (GD), 25 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh For God's Sake, Oh Jesus, Christ, God, Good God, Christ's Sake, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Thank God, My God, Oh My God, God Help Us All, Dear God, Thank Jesus).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man takes prescription pills in several scenes (possibly Benzedrine). A man is shown with a glass of whiskey in many scenes throughout the movie, people drink alcohol at a meeting, people drink champagne, a man smokes a cigar on a sofa, a man smokes a cigar or a cigarette and has a glass of whiskey poured next to him while writing in many scenes, men and women smoke and drink in a restaurant scene, a man drinks alcohol and smokes cigarettes while sitting in a bathtub in a few scenes, a man drinks and smokes in a bar, a woman orders a drink for herself and a man in a bar, and many people are shown drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes at a party. A man is shown smoking cigarettes in practically every scene in the movie, a man in a photograph is shown holding a lit cigarette, a man in an alley is seen smoking a cigar, a man smokes a cigarette on a movie set, a man smokes in an office and outside, two men smoke cigarettes outside one man's house, men in prison smoke cigarettes in a movie room, and a man in another man's home attempts to light a cigarette but is told not to smoke around paintings.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - The Cold War, Communism, suspicion, Hedda Hopper, Joseph McCarthy, success, sex, money, un-American Activities committee, unions, paranoia, conscience, the First Amendment, the Rosenbergs, atom bomb, tax evasion, luck, greed, blame, losing, fear, freedom, slander, gossip columns, martyrdom, contempt of congress.

MESSAGE - People should not be deprived of the ability to work because of their political convictions.