Mank (B or 3/4 stars)
David Fincher's black-&-white character study 'Mank' is the behind-the-scenes story of how prolific, misanthropic screenwriter Herman J. "Mank" Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) collaborated with versatile filmmaker Orson Welles (Tom Burke) to write the 1st draft of the script for Citizen Kane. Fincher meticulously reconstructs 1930s Hollywood to deconstruct the moral decay behind a studio system that fed lies to the public. Orson Welles, via collaborator John Houseman, set up alcoholic Mank - who was recovering from injuries sustained in a bad car accident - to convalesce in a country home in the Mojave Desert with a personal typist (Lily Collins), a German nurse (Monika Grossman), & a wooden case of Seconal-laced liquor as motivation.
Mank is given roughly 90 days to complete the 1st draft of 'CK' -- time & $$ are a wastin'. The year is 1940, but Mank draws inspiration from booze-infused recollections of his career during the years 1934-36 where he worked for MGM under a tyrannical Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard). He also draws inspiration from his friendship with powerful newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance), & Hearst's much younger paramour, Blonde Betty Boop-like actress, Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried). This film isn't only about Mank penning 'CK', it delves behind the scenes in Hollywood to expose the ugliness at its core. And it was Mank's disillusionment in watching Louis B. Mayer tap Irving Thalberg (Ferdinand Kingsley) to smear writer Upton Sinclair with lying propaganda when the Socialist-Democrat ran for governor that gave the 'CK' screenplay its narrative arc.
Director David Fincher's late father, Jack Fincher, wrote the script for this movie as an "inside Hollywood" drama that pays tribute to the brilliant-if-haunted-by-his-demons writer whose analytical talent for observation went unmatched. The flashbacks throughout provide context for why Mank would turn on those who had been so helpful to him during his career. And film's last moments detail the conflict that erupted btwn. Mank & Welles regarding Citizen Kane's authorship.
Gary Oldman, who has played everyone from Sid Vicious to Beethoven to Lee Harvey Oswald to Winston Churchill, immerses himself in a real-life character once again. Even when you feel adrift in the film's talky goings-on, it is easy to be riveted to Oldman's hard-drinking, disheveled intellectual writer. He shines bright when going toe-to-toe with Charles Dance's formidable William Randolph Hearst. And Oldman's charisma is on display whenever paired with Amanda Seyfried's luminous Marion Davies. Looking like she was plucked right from a 1930's movie, Seyfried embodies Davies with wit, humor & sweetness. On the tech front, the period production designs & costumes are immaculate. Reznor & Ross' jazzy music score impresses. And though I found some of Erik Messerschmidt's b-&-w cinematography to be oddly dull, there are plenty of memorably beautiful sequences.
Hollywood loves movies about themselves: The Aviator, La La Land, A Star is Born, Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood. But those films were relatively "enjoyable" experiences with "entertainment" being a strong factor. For cinephiles, like me, the main fascination of 'Mank' is the copious references to the Hollywood elite of that era & the interplay btwn. them all. It was interesting to me seeing Oldman's delight in skewering the rich & powerful -- those titans really were quite corrupt & self-absorbed. If you think 'Mank' is about the creative process of making Citizen Kane, it's more about the factors that led Mank to make it. To that, any "entertainment" factor is muted, as is any major emotional connection to anyone. If you're not a cinema aficionado, you might feel lost. Even those with a casual relationship to the subject matter might find much of the film baffling to the point where you mentally 'check out'. That is this exquisitely-rendered film's problem.
Mank is given roughly 90 days to complete the 1st draft of 'CK' -- time & $$ are a wastin'. The year is 1940, but Mank draws inspiration from booze-infused recollections of his career during the years 1934-36 where he worked for MGM under a tyrannical Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard). He also draws inspiration from his friendship with powerful newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance), & Hearst's much younger paramour, Blonde Betty Boop-like actress, Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried). This film isn't only about Mank penning 'CK', it delves behind the scenes in Hollywood to expose the ugliness at its core. And it was Mank's disillusionment in watching Louis B. Mayer tap Irving Thalberg (Ferdinand Kingsley) to smear writer Upton Sinclair with lying propaganda when the Socialist-Democrat ran for governor that gave the 'CK' screenplay its narrative arc.
Director David Fincher's late father, Jack Fincher, wrote the script for this movie as an "inside Hollywood" drama that pays tribute to the brilliant-if-haunted-by-his-demons writer whose analytical talent for observation went unmatched. The flashbacks throughout provide context for why Mank would turn on those who had been so helpful to him during his career. And film's last moments detail the conflict that erupted btwn. Mank & Welles regarding Citizen Kane's authorship.
Gary Oldman, who has played everyone from Sid Vicious to Beethoven to Lee Harvey Oswald to Winston Churchill, immerses himself in a real-life character once again. Even when you feel adrift in the film's talky goings-on, it is easy to be riveted to Oldman's hard-drinking, disheveled intellectual writer. He shines bright when going toe-to-toe with Charles Dance's formidable William Randolph Hearst. And Oldman's charisma is on display whenever paired with Amanda Seyfried's luminous Marion Davies. Looking like she was plucked right from a 1930's movie, Seyfried embodies Davies with wit, humor & sweetness. On the tech front, the period production designs & costumes are immaculate. Reznor & Ross' jazzy music score impresses. And though I found some of Erik Messerschmidt's b-&-w cinematography to be oddly dull, there are plenty of memorably beautiful sequences.
Hollywood loves movies about themselves: The Aviator, La La Land, A Star is Born, Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood. But those films were relatively "enjoyable" experiences with "entertainment" being a strong factor. For cinephiles, like me, the main fascination of 'Mank' is the copious references to the Hollywood elite of that era & the interplay btwn. them all. It was interesting to me seeing Oldman's delight in skewering the rich & powerful -- those titans really were quite corrupt & self-absorbed. If you think 'Mank' is about the creative process of making Citizen Kane, it's more about the factors that led Mank to make it. To that, any "entertainment" factor is muted, as is any major emotional connection to anyone. If you're not a cinema aficionado, you might feel lost. Even those with a casual relationship to the subject matter might find much of the film baffling to the point where you mentally 'check out'. That is this exquisitely-rendered film's problem.