Mank, which takes up the
Citizen Kane authorship question reinvigorated by a 1971 Pauline Kael essay in
The
New Yorker. What was of interest to me was, here s a guy who had seemingly nothing but contempt for what he did for a living. And, on almost his way out the door, having burned most of the bridges that he could … something changed.
Shot in black and white and in the style of a 1930s movie,
Mank toggles between Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) writing the first draft of
Citizen Kane from a remote house in the desert and flashback sequences of his life in Hollywood in the 30s, including his friendship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance), who inspired
Mank Review: Fincherâs Ode to Citizen Kane Falls Flat
The best advice is probably just to skip Mank, watch Citizen Kane, and read a biography of the Mankiewicz brothers. Youâll have a far better time.
A still from Netflix s Mank  (2020). Photo: IMDB
I thought
Mank was an atrocious film, which is odd. I mean, surely this David Fincherâdirected Netflix project was practically made for me.
Iâm one of those freaks who really cares about the career of screenwriter Herman J. âMankâ Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) and his battle with media wunderkind Orson Welles (Tom Burke) over the writing credit on
WHAT IT S ABOUT:
A new version of 1930s Hollywood is told through the eyes of Herman J. Mankiewicz, the screenwriter, as he rushes to finish the script of the famous film
Citizen Kane.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
There is something about David Fincher s films that transports you out of your current situation into the world he has created. In
The Social Network we were in the negotiation room with Mark Zuckerberg and in
Gone Girl we were in on Amy Dunne s schemes. In
Mank, we experience the intricacies on 1930s Hollywood.
The film follows Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman), the fabled journalist turned screenwriter, as he wrote what many consider to be the greatest film of all time
CinemaBlend
I imagine that many of those who had anticipated the December 4th premiere of
Mank were especially excited to see the long-awaited return of David Fincher to feature-length filmmaking. I would also hope that most of the filmâs biggest champions had seen
Citizen Kane or at least had some knowledge of its place in cinematic history. I would not be surprised, however, if the title role of Herman Mankiewicz, portrayed by Gary Oldman, is someone many had never heard of before.
In fact, I would understand if most featured characters in the Netflix original biopic were strangers to anyone without a distinct familiarity for Hollywoodâs Golden Age.
Mank, directed by David Fincher (
Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Gone Girl) from a 1994 screenplay written by his late father, Jack Fincher, is a biographical drama about American screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his role, or purported role, in the creation of
Citizen Kane (1941), the first film directed by and featuring Orson Welles. It is a Netflix Original film.
Much can be said about this subject, but we will have to limit ourselves.
Amanda Seyfried and Gary Oldman in
Mank
An initial title in
Mank informs us that Welles was brought to Hollywood in 1940 at the age of 24 by a struggling RKO Pictures and “given absolute creative autonomy, would suffer no oversight, and could make any movie, about any subject, with any collaborator he wished…”