Alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) is the subject of David Fincher's old school Oscar-winning Hollywood tale, chronicling the creation of Orson Welles’ masterpiece Citizen Kane.
Filmed in black and white to emulate the era, Mank details Mankiewicz’s writing process and the experiences he brought to his screenplay - including his history with William Randolph Hearst (the blueprint for Charles Foster Kane). And, not to mention, Mank’s contentious relationship with Orson Welles (Tom Burke). Co-stars Amanda Seyfried (First Reformed), Lily Collins (Emily in Paris) and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones).
Impressive and immersive, this is a fascinating world to spend two hours in, although those not versed in Hollywood history may struggle. Also, despite much talk about the emotive power of the movies, it’s a film that only seeks to engage the brain. But perhaps for an unsentimental SOB like Mank—not to mention Fincher—that’s the whole point.
Full reviewThis is about Oldman and, even more so than in Darkest Hour, he delivers a powerhouse performance filled with memorable moments, many shades and plenty of pithy one-liners. “Are you ever serious?” his Mank is asked. “Only when something is funny.”
Full reviewThe problem is that Mank never transcends its borrowed cornball arc, depicting its title character as a genius in eternal conflict with villains and phonies like Hearst (Charles Dance, terrific), Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard, even better), and Welles (Tom Burke, blood-curdlingly bad).
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Working from a diligently researched screenplay by his late father, Jack Fincher, the director has made a high-style piece of cinematic nostalgia that's a constant pleasure to look at but only intermittently finds a heartbeat.
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Mank is a tale of Old Hollywood that’s more steeped in Old Hollywood — its glamour and sleaze, its layer-cake hierarchies, its corruption and glory — than just about any movie you’ve seen, and the effect is to lend it a dizzying time-machine splendor.
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Among Fincher die-hards, the result will probably bemuse some, bore many, and thrill a relative but hearty minority. Count me in the minority.
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Fincher has made a cerebral psychodrama that rewards the engaged cinephile audience in its crosshairs, but even when cold to the touch, the movie delivers a complex and insightful look at American power structures and the potential for a creative spark to rankle their foundations.
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Like all great Fincher films, Mank is about obsession. The obsession with getting something right. The obsession with creating good art. The obsessions with being remembered long after the whole world has faded to black.
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Mank taps into a vein of feeling that reaches farther than mere family tribute. The film also serves as a political cri de coeur, one that inspires as much as it dismays. In making a film that’s sort of about the making of another film, Fincher has many metatextual layers to work with, which he does with trademark precision and unexpected gentility.
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What an addictive romantic drama it is, mixing sentimentality with pure rapture.
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After 30 years of gestation, Mank emerges one of the great films on the machinations of Hollywood.
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It’s simply telling a story about a man behind so many of our movie memories and making a new one in the process. And it is, without a doubt one, of the year’s very best.
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Mank feels like both a film for the ages and one hauled up from them: a forbidden tale grave-robbed from the Hollywood catacombs.
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Shot in stunning black-and-white, Mank delivers Hollywood in a multitude of greys. Built on a towering performance by Gary Oldman, it’s smart, sophisticated, by turns thrilling and difficult, and amongst Fincher’s best.
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