1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.
- Released: 2020-11-13
- Runtime: 132 minutes
- Genre: Drama, History
- Stars: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Arliss Howard, Tom Pelphrey, Sam Troughton, Ferdinand Kingsley, Tuppence Middleton, Tom Burke, Joseph Cross, Jamie McShane, Toby Leonard Moore, Monika Gossmann, Charles Dance, Jack Romano, Adam Shapiro, John Churchill, Jeff Harms, Derek Petropolis, Sean Persaud, Paul Fox, Tom Simmons, Nick Job, Colin Ward, Cooper Tomlinson, Julie Collis, Arlo Mertz, Craig Welzbacher, Jessie Cohen, Desiree Louise, Amie Farrell, Ian Boyd, Jay Villwock, Lou George, John Lee Ames, Bill Nye, Richmond Arquette, David Lee Smith, Mario Di Donato, James Patrick Duffy, Flo Lawrence, Sebastian Faure, Randy Davison, Christian Prentice, Leven Rambin, Rick Pasqualone, Gary Teitelbaum, Eden Wattez, Roslyn Cohn, Mark Fite, John Patrick Jordan, Ben Mankiewicz, Natalie Denise Sperl, Brian Michael Jones, Camille Montgomery, Craig Robert Young, Paul Carafotes, Anne Beyer, Joey Hagler, Sean Donnellan, Stewart Skelton, Malachi Rivers, Keith Barber, Kaytlin Borgen, Madison West, Elvy, Ali Axelrad, Adrienne Evans, Wylie Small, Dana Lyn Baron, Jaclyn Bethany, Cary Christopher, Michelle Twarowska, Kingston Vernes, Jordan Matlock, Anthony Molinari, Daniel Hoffman
- Director: David Fincher
Comments
- judealexharnett - 6 March 2024
Really disappointing
I have no doubt that David fincher is one of the best working directors and Gary old man is one of the best actors ever so you'd think the two of them would be a recipe for success but unfortunately this movie was ridiculously mediocre. I enjoyed what he was trying to do by telling the story of Mank and I think the movie was extremely well looking, but I didn't enjoy the movie itself.
That being said I did enjoy the movies ending but throughout the whole movie it felt almost as if fincher was trying to get so much done that nothing actually happened. As a result I felt a lot of the plot was lost on me. 5/10. - CinemaSerf - 17 July 2023
Mank
This features another quite impressive, powerful, performance from Gary Oldman as David Fincher uses his stylish and authentic portrayal of the borderline iconoclast Herman J. Mankiewicz to take us on a tour of Hollywood in the 1930s. It's told by way of flashback, as the bed-ridden Oldman is working on his screenplay for "Citizen Kane" and through his frequently drunken hazes we experience much of the politics, bigotry, misogyny, and pretty blatant corruption that prevailed in the upper echelons of the studio system as espoused by the likes of Louis B. Meyer (Arliss Howard); Irving Thalberg (Ferdinand Kingsley) and most especially the king of the hill - WR Hearst (Charles Dance). The monochrome photography adds much to the rich look of the film, and Jack Fincher provided the star with some wonderfully eloquent (often wittily loquacious) monologues - particularly towards the end as his battle against the booze starts to become more of an effort for him to fight and his friends begin to redefine their relationship with him. I was less impressed with the supporting cast - Dance dressed like a circus ringmaster for much of the time and Amanda Seyfried and Lily Collins struggled to make much of an impact, even though both roles are significant in the lives of Mankiewicz and Hearst respectively. It's a considered work, this - it doesn't dwell on the salaciousness of the scenarios; indeed it seems hell bent on avoiding dirtying it's hands with any of the concomitant scandal that accompanied the era, and that is quite odd. It robs the storyline of the oxygen of the underling politics and power-broking that created the ambience Mankiewicz so resented - even loathed. I saw it on the big screen about a day before Netflix rolled it out, and on balance I think a television viewing is all this needs. It's good - but not great. - nicolaejipescu - 31 July 2022
A white and black hit from DF
Mank is David Fincher's first biopic and his 11th film overall. Here, Fincher proves that he has reached the maturity of his artistic genius, proving that he is at the highest level of film creativity. The fact that he recycles ideas and technical artifices that he experimented with in his previous films does nothing but prove his ability to auteuristically integrate a directorial vision into a Hollywood production, and by no means a director who ended up ideas. The obsessive movement of the camera, the strong lighting, which floods the set and which is very well directed to capture gestures and reactions, the sharp framing, the changes of focus in the frames with two actors, the quasi-permanent music, emphasizing the moments of tension through a build up in the interior of the scene (without relying on editing and sound cuts that have become clichés), everything reveals a brilliant director, perhaps the best of his generation (the only one capable of facing him is Tarantino).
The strongest point of the film is the main character. Herman Mankiewicz, the screenwriter behind one of the best films in history, Citizen Kane, is followed for about ten years to understand the events and motivations that informed the final draft of the film directed by Orson Welles. Built on the antithesis of principle and reason, Mankiewicz is a template character of Fincher's cinematic universe. He's a flawed character with strong qualities, with Fincher cleverly and gradually building the path along which the qualities become flaws and the flaws end up being overlooked. Gary Oldman's performance is very good, playing an exceptional character in an exceptional situation (another constant of Fincher's films). Oldman plays naturally, in a smoldering interpretation, devoid of sensationalism and exaggerations, a character for whom the external conflict is equal to the internal one, and principles and stubbornness end up being causes of professional decay.
The film also excels through the pictorial structure of the frames, the black-and-white image that reproduces the period atmosphere and highlights acting details, the alert montage, which gives fluidity to the director's speech, by alternating the diegetic with the non-diegetic sound, which on the one hand romanticizes the film , and on the other hand, it allows the viewer to attach or distance himself from the epic thread and characters, or the direct and well-defined transition from one temporal plane to another. - himanishmehta-54986 - 25 March 2022
A sharply written tale with a brilliant direction & cast!
Mank can be best described as a movie for a specialised audience, it's sad that it remains underrated due to its lack of approach towards the masses but it definitely an old classic Hollywood drama woven by excellent writing by Jack fincher & a nuanced direction from David fincher.
It gets slow in it's second half & also has some overwritten dialogues but the beautiful production design & impeccable performance from Gary oldman saves the day.
A definite recommendation for movie lovers & fans of Citizen kane! - ikata-49417 - 9 January 2022
Dreadful execution
Based on the cast and the topic I expected to like this movie. I wanted to like this movie to the point that I tried to watch it twice. The second time just in case I wasn't in the right space to enjoy it the first time. I didn't finish it either time. I hate this movie.
