MVFF38 Preview: ‘TRUTH,’ starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford
Based on the book “Truth and Duty: The Press, The President and the Power of Privilege” by Pulitzer and Emmy winning television producer Mary Mapes and detailing the explosive story of then President George W. Bush’s questionable history with the National Guard during the Vietnam War, Truth is a riveting piece of cinema with a powerhouse performance by two-time Academy Award® winner Cate Blanchett as Mapes. When reporting and fact-checking of the story comes back at her and legendary CBS anchor Dan Rather (played by Academy Award® winner Robert Redford) their livelihoods hang in the balance.
Writer-director James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) has a good ear for journalistic dialogue and ‘freedom of the press’ speeches but there are a few first-time directors traps he falls into. A few scenes of slow motion feel a bit amateurish and the (should have ben) subtextual father-daughter relationship between Rather and Mapes gets underlined unnecessarily. Those don’t take away too much from the impact of the story though as his adaptation of Mapes’s book is extraordinarily detailed and engrossing.
Truth, from Sony Pictures Classics, will be at the Mill Valley Film Festival Friday, October 16th and Sunday, October 18th and hit theaters in limited release on October 16th before going wide.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2026 Cannes Film Festival Winners: Cristian Mingiu’s ‘Fjord’ Takes the Palme, Seventh Win in a Row for NEON - May 23, 2026
- Cannes 2026: Sandra Wollner’s ‘Everytime’ Wins Un Certain Regard Grand Prize - May 22, 2026
- ‘Coward’ Review: Belgian Soldiers Find Love in Lukas Dhont’s Hidden Romance Masterpiece [A] Cannes - May 21, 2026
AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 345: Recapping the 79th Cannes Film Festival and Looking to the Awards Future 
‘The Beloved’ Review: Javier Bardem Makes a Meal Out of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Movie-Making Buffet [B] 
‘The Dreamed Adventure’ Review: Valeska Grisebach’s Observant Thriller Examines the Grey Zones of Morality [B+] 
‘Minotaur’ Review: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Timeless, Domestic Epic is an Unflinching Look at Putin’s Russia [A] Cannes