Del and Mladen review ‘Truth & Treason’
Image courtesy of Angel Studios.
“Truth & Treason” Starring Ewan Horrocks, Rupert Evans, Ferdinand McKay and Daf Thomas. Directed by Matt Whitaker. 2 hours, 1 minute. Rated PG-13. Theatrical release.
Plot synopsis: Angered by the arrest of his Jewish friend and disillusioned with Nazi Germany after hearing wartime BBC broadcasts, a German teen recruits two of his friends to help circulate leaflets condemning Adolf Hitler – with catastrophic results.
Spoilers: Yes.
Del’s take
I should have liked “Truth & Treason” a lot more than I did.
The story is terrific, about a group of teenage boys who sneak out after curfew to spread anti-Nazi leaflets and essays across the city of Hamburg, Germany in the early years of World War II as the Wehrmacht juggernaut is rolling across Poland, western Europe and Russia.
The parallels between 1940 Germany and 2025 America are undeniable and terrifying. As somebody who read William Shirer’s excellent “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” and told himself “It could never happen here,” I found myself shuddering at the image of Nazi recruiting posters that bear an uncanny resemblance to the ICE recruiting memes I saw online just last week.
But “Truth & Treason” is strangely lifeless. The story is told with the callow earnestness of a Boy Scout merit badge project, depriving it of an emotional heart.
That’s too bad because it’s a fascinating story about actual events. Ewan Horrocks plays Helmuth Hübner, a 16-year-old German teen who is part of a posse of four boys – himself, Salomon Schwarz (played by Nye Occomore), Karl-Heinz Schnibbe (Ferdinand McKay) and Rudi Wobbe (Daf Thomas). They jump off bridges together, beat up obnoxious Hitler Youth leaders together, and read subversive books. Then, Helmuth’s older brother returns from the front with a forbidden item – a radio that allows the boys to hear broadcasts from outside the country. It is from those broadcasts Helmuth learns the truth about Nazi Germany. Meanwhile Salomon, who is Jewish, is picked up by the SS and dispatched to Auschwitz. The convergence of those two events radicalizes young Helmuth, who borrows his church’s typewriter to create leaflets critical of Hitler and the Nazis. A local SS officer, Erwin Mussener (Rupert Evans) finds some of Helmuth’s leaflets and launches an investigation. From that point the movie follows the expected trajectory.
The problem with “Truth & Treason” is that it never really develops any of its characters as people, and it glosses over the entanglements of relationships so that when the story reaches its inevitable conclusion, there’s not much in the way of an emotional climax. Mladen will probably fuss about that because he’s not a touchy-feely kind of guy but in this case an emotional bond between character on screen and person sitting in the audience is crucial to the film’s success, yet there’s little to no attachment because nothing much is done with the characters as living, breathing human beings.
Instead, the movie focuses more on the mechanical process of storytelling. Helmuth’s transformation from uncommitted Hitler Youth member to risk-taking radical occurs quickly and without sufficient demonstration. I mean, yes, we see Salomon taken into custody by the Gestapo and yes, we hear radio broadcasts denouncing Hitler. But somehow it’s not enough and then boom! we’ve moved on to the next step in the process.
The only character who rises above the mundane is Rupert Evans as Mussener, the SS investigator who, like Helmuth, begins to realize the Hitler regime is built on a foundation of lies. He is torn between his duty and his humanity, and Evans does an excellent job of portraying this growing inner conflict.
The movie takes pains to stress two points which are relevant to 21st century America. It wraps with a quote attributed to Russian lawyer and dissident Alexy Navalny: “Sometimes the greatest rebellion is to simply speak the truth!” The other appears in a coda presented as the credits roll – I believe it was director Whitaker who appeared and urged moviegoers to “Practice courage,” an unmistakable call to action for resistance against the fascist lies propagated by the Trump regime.
“Truth & Treason” is a timely and important movie about an act of courage, but in my opinion the story is not told as well as it could have been. Therefore, instead of giving it an A score, I’m giving it a B.
See it, yes, but don’t expect to come out of the theater with tears in your eyes.
Mladen’s take
Let’s get honest about Truth. The word has no meaning today, probably never has at any time in history.
Truth is an obnoxious concoction of beliefs and historical contextlessness. Its users wield Truth as though it’s the same as Fact.
Day in and day out on the internets, we are exposed to Truth. Truth about eye shadow and Botox, about paleodiets and veganism, about Democrats and Republicans, about the economy and unemployment rate, about cryptocurrency, about the war in Ukraine, about the slaughter in Gaza and Darfur. If a story in a newspaper or magazine or on the web has Truth in its headline, I never read it. Truth is nothing more than someone’s opinion about Fact. If there is no Fact involved at all, Truth is Bullshit.
Boy, that was therapeutic.
So, for me, the film “Truth & Treason” already had a big-ass strike against it even before Del and I sat down to watch it. The movie should’ve been titled “Fact & Treason” because Fact exists no matter what we believe to be Truth. The Fact is that Hitler started World War II in Europe and three years later authorized the full-scale bureaucratization of the Final Solution. The Fact of industrial slaughter of millions of people is appalling and hideous all on its own. There’s nothing that neo-Nazis or holocaust deniers can do to change the Fact. What they can do is try to sell you the Truth. The Truth of the genetic inferiority of the Slavic races. The Truth of the financial takeover of the planet by Jews. The Truth of homosexuality as unnatural.
Fact, on the other hand, needs no spokesman. Fact needs no interpreter. Fact needs no political party. Fact takes no sides. Fact is.
It came to pass, of course, that the kid pamphleteer in “Truth & Treason” faced a Nazi judge who effortlessly pointed out that the Allies fighting the Axis had their own cruel histories of barbarism and colonialism and murdering the innocent. Yes, the Nazi judge was a piece of Hitler‑enabling slag. And, yes, the Nazi judge was correct about American and English and French conquest of peoples not as well armed with weapons or propaganda. He, too, spoke the Truth as he defined it.
Truth lets us take sides, no matter who is offending whom. Fact is undisputable. All the governments of the states fighting World War II were savage, and, as Fact now shows, would be again. Their Truths prevailed because they were able to suffocate Fact with bullets and bombs and global trade.
In “Truth & Treason,” the pamphleteer and judge contorted or ignored Fact to speak the Truth as each understood its meaning. In “Truth & Treason” only Evans as Mussener showed that he understood the difference between Truth and Fact. He then made a choice. Mussener decided Truth was better than Fact.
Del is correct, “Truth & Treason” speaks to the times we now face. But, then again, Fact shows that humanity has sucked and always will. The failure of “Truth & Treason” to mitigate that Fact pisses me off. The movie generated an antagonist who was far more compelling and alert than the teenaged protagonist, who, of all things, liked opera, which to me is nothing more than organized screaming. And that’s Fact.
“Truth & Treason” notches a C+.
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Image courtesy of Disney Studios.
“Tron: Ares” Starring Jared Leto as Ares, Greta Lee as Eve Kim, Jodie Turner-Smith as Athena, Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger and others. Directed by Joachim Rǿnning. 1 hour 59 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Spoilers: Sure.
Mladen’s take
Don’t listen to the other critics talking crap about “Tron: Ares.” It’s a good movie with a touch of heart despite the sometimes too loud Goth industrial electropunk score and its very, very vivid color palette.
I saw the film (twice) in 3D, once in IMAX and the last time in a plain ole theater. Wholly guacamole did the reds of the filmography and the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack dig deep into my brain’s sensory lobes. After, oh, 45 minutes of exposure to the pulsating everything on the screen and the raucous thumping of lows and highs coming from the speakers I got tired, if not frustrated, by the frenetic aural and visual activity. But, like the trooper I am, I persevered to see the guts of computers anthropomorphized into human forms reflecting the good and bad of our species, as well as humans being human.
Jared Leto does a good job as Ares, a program that evolves from a data‑spouting automaton following directives without question at the beginning of the film to a human-like being trying to understand the difference between right and wrong while chasing the “Permanence Code.” Jodie Turner‑Smith as Athena was a confident, menacing foil to Ares’ introspective side. She kicked ass and came back for more again and again. No “Impediment” was going to stop her from completing her mission.
Ares’ wish to “live” made it/him sympathetic. Who among us doesn’t want to stop taking orders from The Man to chase our dreams? Obedient Athena – obedient to the “user” who runs her “Grid” – is determined to fulfill her directive – find human Kim, teleport her to the Grid by deconstructing her, reconstruct her as a digital copy, and extract the Permanence Code from Kim though it will kill her. Athena’s single mindedness, if it could be described that way, is chilling.
The Ares and Athena antagonism unfolds amid a feud between corporate titan and good gal Kim, charmingly played by Lee, and corporate titan and bad guy Dillinger, effectively played by Peters, as they pursue the Permanence Code for the artificial creations their hyper‑fast, algorithm‑driven, and laser‑spewing machines produce. Permanence means that programs like Ares and Athena manifesting in the Real would survive longer than 29 minutes, the confounding limit of their life spans outside their home world. Of course, Kim wants to use permanence to feed humanity, provide health care, and develop alternative fuels. Yeah, Dillinger wants to sell permanence weapons to the military.
“Tron: Ares” is a B+. There’s no need to see it in 3D, which costs more. It just worked out that way for me. I suspect the film’s loudness and vividness was amplified by the 3D, bringing the film close to sensory overload.
Del’s take
I barely remember the 1982 “Tron” (I think I watched it drunk) and “Tron: Legacy” exists in my memory as a single image of Jeff Bridges standing atop some towering digital artifact. In truth the premise of these movies – that flesh-and-blood human beings can be digitized and loaded into a computer, then reconstituted thanks to the miracle of laser 3-D printers – is so freaking stupid I’m not willing to suspend my disbelief.
That’s weird because many of the movies I love – “The Matrix,” “Cloverfield,” “Star Wars: A New Hope” (the best “Star Wars” movie EVER and I don’t care what Mladen says) – are based on stupid premises yet I love them just the same. If I were having this conversation with a therapist he or she would want me to drill down to the real reason I don’t like them.
I think it’s because the plots are so very very standard-issue, unimaginative good-guy-vs.-bad-guy pablum we’ve seen a bazillion times in the past: Loser squares off against powerful dude – the love of a good woman is at stake – and somehow, despite EVERYTHING, the loser succeeds and becomes a not-loser, which I guess we call a winner.
That’s “Tron: Ares,” only this time the loser is a digital proprietary program that malfunctions … and develops a soul. I’m not sure how you 3-D map a soul but that doesn’t stop “Tron: Ares” and let’s just say he follows the trajectory of all these superhero and quasi-superhero movies to their inevitable conclusion. At least the Marvel movies have the decency to throw in some self-deprecating humor. None of that here.
The movie is gorgeous to look at although the digital domain, with its dominant red and black color palette, reminded me of Hell. The special effects were what you might expect from a movie who’s sole artistic virtue is special effects.
Jared Leto was wooden as Ares but then you can’t blame him – he was playing the part he was given. Really, everybody here did an adequate job of filling their roles, although Gillian Anderson and Evan Peters are always better in anything they do.
My understanding is that one of the major draws was the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack. I was expecting something on the order of Vangelis’ score for “Blade Runner,” but no, that would not be an apt comparison. Trent Reznor went all Teutonic Goth and produced a hammering, thunderous score that relentlessly beats you into a bloody, cowering pulp hiding behind your seat on the sticky floor. It’s way too much. I came out of the theater feeling like I’d gone 10 rounds with Oleksandr Usyk.
The other night I cleansed my palate with one of the greatest science fiction-horror movies of the ’60s ever made, the vastly underrated “Quatermass and the Pit.” My God, what a movie! It reminded me that good films that tell original stories really do exist in more than just concept. I hope one day to see another movie that inspires that kind of enthusiasm from me. In 2025 it seems Hollywood is more focused on churning out “content” and making as much money as possible. Art is no longer part of the equation. How sad.
Mladen was too generous in his rating of “Tron: Ares.” It’s really worth only a C+. Even the original arcade game it’s based on was better, though good luck finding a functional machine today.
By all means, see “Tron: Ares” in a theater. But bring your headphones to filter out some of the thunder.
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Photo courtesy of NARA & DVIDS
Did you hear Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, aka Gestapo Barbie, recently spent $172 million of YOUR tax dollars for a couple of swanky new private jets so that she and her chestnut-colored Lady Clairol hair extensions can jet-set around the globe in comfort and luxury?
Do you appreciate the atrocious optics of this purchase?
At a time when almost 300,000 civil servants have been fired from their jobs so the government can save money and apply those savings to paying down the national debt. …
At a time when almost 15,000,000 Americans are being thrown out of their health insurance coverage so the government can save money and apply those savings to paying down the national debt. …
At a time when government agencies and services are being gutted so the government can save money and apply those savings to paying down the national debt. …
At a time when WE are being told we must cut back, sacrifice and do without so the government can save money and pay down the national debt. …
SHE spends $172 million of YOUR tax dollars for a couple of swanky new Gulfstreams so that she and her chestnut-colored Lady Clairol hair extensions can jet-set around the globe in comfort and luxury!
Are you fucking kidding me?
And would you like to know how many of those saved dollars have actually been applied to paying down the national debt? Go ahead. Take a guess.
ZERO.
ZERO DOLLARS have been applied to paying down the national debt, because debt remediation is paid through budget surpluses and there won’t be a budget surplus this year. In fact, that Lizard King in the White House and his moronic minions have added another 4 TRILLION DOLLARS to the national debt.
The national debt is now higher than 40 TRILLION DOLLARS.
And Gestapo Barbie just spent another $172 million of YOUR tax dollars on a couple of swanky new private jets so that she and her chestnut-colored Lady Clairol hair extensions can jet-set around the globe in comfort and luxury.
That $172 million would have allowed almost 22,000 people to regain their Medicaid coverage.
If this doesn’t piss you off – if this doesn’t ENRAGE you – you are one dumb son-of-a-bitch.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
“The Conjuring: Last Rites” Starring Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson and others. Directed by Michael Chaves. 2 hours, 15 minutes. Rated R. Theatrical release.
Plot synopsis: Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren are drawn into a final investigation when their daughter becomes involved with a family being stalked by demons inhabiting a cursed mirror.
Spoilers: one large spoiler toward the end of the review.
Del’s take
Mladen was out of town and I was bored, so I decided to throw in with Spooky Season and catch an afternoon showing of “The Conjuring: Last Rites.” Good thing it was daylight. I was the only person in the theater, which was scary enough. I would not have wanted to walk to my car in the dark!
Why hasn’t Vera Farmiga won an Oscar? She’s clearly a terrific actor, bringing expressiveness and pathos to her characters, no matter if she’s Norman Bates’ mother in “Bates Motel” or the two-timing Alex Goran of “Up in the Air.” She is the warm heart and brighter soul of the very dark “Conjuring” franchise, which includes:
“The Conjuring” (2013)
“Annabelle” (2014)
“The Conjuring 2” (2016)
“Annabelle: Creation” (2017)
“The Nun” (2018)
“The Curse of La Llorona” (2019)
“Annabelle Comes Home” (2019)
“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” (2021)
“The Nun 2” (2023)
“The Conjuring: Last Rites” (2025)
In “Last Rites” she continues a series of excellent performances as Lorraine Warren, the real-life paranormal investigator who, with her husband Ed, brought the idea of ghostbusting into the mainstream by way of their involvement in the Amityville Horror in which a New York couple claimed their house was inhabited by a violent demonic presence. That case itself led to the production of a series of movies and best-selling books.
“Last Rites” suggests an end to the “Conjuring” series but do you seriously believe any movie studio in its right mind would shut down a franchise in which the most recent installment generated $440 million in box office receipts? If anything “Last Rites” works as a springboard to launch a whole new series of spooky investigations – but with new characters.
Patrick Wilson’s Ed is ready to call it quits after suffering a near-fatal heart attack and his wife, Farmiga’s Lorraine, is on board with retirement. But daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) finds herself under constant psychic attack by ghosts and demons, brought into renewed fury by a haunted mirror picked up at a thrift shop by the Smurl family of blue collar West Pittston, Pennsylvania. This same haunted mirror has a history with Judy, having almost taken her life at birth. Judy and fiancé Tony (Ben Hardy) are drawn into mortal peril when Judy sees the Spurl’s predicament on TV and recognizes her connection. In the process she convinces her parents to take on one last ghostbusting gig and events proceed downhill from there.
The story is told through a series of flashbacks that bounce back and forth from periods of Judy’s childhood to the present, which is set in 1986. While it would seem to focus on the Spurl’s haunting, and Judy and Tony’s terror-cladded involvement, it’s really about Ed and Lorraine’s last hurrah. And we know it’s their last hurrah because at the end of the movie Ed – brace yourself for a spoiler – hands the key to the room containing the Warren’s haunted curious and artifacts to Tony. Expect future “Conjuring” installments starring the Judy and Tony duo.
“Last Rites” requires a bit of attention from the audience due to its constant shifting of viewpoint but overall it’s a decent piece of work by Chaves, who has helmed other “Conjuring” installments.
But is it scary? I’m hesitant to answer that question. Few horror movies scare me these days – my friend Hawk tells me that’s because I’m a horror writer and my senses have been dulled to all things that go bump in the night. I thought “The Ring,” “The Grudge” and “It Follows” were very scary, but horror movies that require gore or jump scares to frighten their audiences don’t do much for me. I thought there were a couple of scenes in “Last Rites” that were definitely creepy but overall I didn’t find it scary so much as long. At 2 hours and 15 minutes it seemed to go on forever.
Still, it’s a decent movie and I wish some of you had been in the theater with me as I wouldn’t have been so creeped out by the idea that there was nobody present to hear me laugh – or scream!
I’m giving “The Conjuring: Last Rites” a solid B. If you want to see it in theaters you’d better hurry – it’s been in theatrical release for awhile and will move on soon.
It’s a terrific movie for Spooky Season – if you don’t go alone.
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.