Mank movie 2020 is an American biographical drama film. This is a 1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay for “Citizen Kane.”
Mank Movie Cast
Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz | Jack Fincher Screenwriter |
Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies | Ceán Chaffin Producer |
Lily Collins as Rita Alexander | David Fincher Producer |
Tom Burke as Orson Welles | Eric Roth Producer |
Tuppence Middleton as Sara Mankiewicz | Douglas Urbanski Producer |
Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst | Erik Messerschmidt Cinematographer |
Tom Pelphrey as Joseph Mankiewicz | Kirk Baxter Film Editor |
Leven Rambin as Eve | Trent Reznor Original Music |
David Fincher Director | Donald Graham Burt Production Design |
Mank Movie Review
Mank movie 2020 is directed by David Fincher and written by his late father Jack Fincher is currently on Netflix. It’s stars Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, and Charles Dance.
1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay for “Citizen Kane.”
I can’t really pick a favorite director, but I know that David Fincher is my favorite director to listen to, when it comes to advice interviews podcasts anything like that I’m jumping on it.
If he’s going to be talking about film or his routine how he approaches filmmaking, I’m mesmerized by that. I like that he curses. He’s super blunt and honest. He doesn’t seem Hollywood at all. He’s just a guy who tells it like it is.
I adore his advice on movies and every time I’ve ever approached making one of my own I always always always turn towards his advice. Whether it’s his film commentaries or interviews that he’s done.
He’s brilliant. I love his movies. He’s directed at least 5 of my favorites of all time, but I also love film history. I also love that movie. I was very excited at the notion of David Fincher making a movie about the creation of that film and I knew that it wouldn’t be like any other biopic and it definitely isn’t.
Fincher supposedly wanted to make this movie after the game, but apparently studios didn’t wanna make a black and white movie with him. which is really crazy to me.
I imagine like making 7 and then the studio is refuse to make it. Yeah but we finally can watch the film today and what I can say about Mank movie 2020 is that a lot of people will not like this movie. A lot of people are going to find it very boring.
And there are stretches of the movie that I didn’t find myself particularly invested in. But I was floored by the film technically just as I am with all David Fincher movies.
This film was shot in 8 K, but the footage was considerably degraded in multiple ways to make it look just like a film that was out of the thirties or forties.
The pristine HD quality of 8 K has been blurred significantly. There’s cigarette burns added dust and hairs and cracks in the frames.
The sound mix sounds like it’s coming from a cathedral. It has an echo to it and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s scores is amazing.
It sounds just like an older film. The instruments they chose and everything about this movie, if you just showed it to somebody who had no idea who these actors were didn’t know who David Fincher was you could probably convince them that it was from the 1930s.
Right down to shots of actors against a skyline you could see like a slight glow around the outline of their bodies, just like older films.
There was something just not exactly right about the background composition to the foreground composition and this film made it look so seamless. I was floored technically by this movie. But not really that emotionally invested in the story unfortunately.
Mank movie 2020 is a movie that I am supposed to love. I’m supposed to love this movie because I love film David Fincher’s one of my favorite directors Gary Oldman. I love film history. I’m supposed to love the Mank movie 2020, but I didn’t.
I feel similarly about this film that I did with tenet. Tenet Movie was also technically marvelous and really jaw dropping, but emotionally distant. I just didn’t really find myself that invested in the characters in Tenet and that’s the same with Mank.
Where most biopics work really hard to justify their existence for why they have told a story about a real person, Mank movie doesn’t seem to.
Most of the time he’s very drunk in bad flirting with women even though he’s married and fighting with Orson Welles over writing credits.
And they becoming very engaged in an election that was happening that year. Where he noticed that certain filmmakers around him were sort of pulling the strings behind the scenes making propaganda films that seem to influence the results of that election.
So this film has a lot going on. It’s talking about the politics of the 1930s in the film business scene specifically and really nothing outside of it.
It is purely about what was going on at MGM studios and the financial issues the Great Depression and its affect on MGM and filmmakers in general. And it was fascinating, but I just didn’t really find myself that invested.
I enjoyed watching this movie. I really did. I love looking at it. I love hearing it. I loved all of the actors in the film. Charles Dance especially is really good in this movie.
You are going to appreciate it more or at least understand it a lot more if you are well versed in Citizen Kane. If you’ve seen that movie many times and you understand its structure. The use of flashbacks this movie does quite a bit as well.
The narratives are presented in a similar fashion. The dialogue is often very fast as has become a Fincher staple since the social network.
But sometimes it can feel like characters are talking about things that you don’t really understand, unless you know everything about 1930s Hollywood. And even if you did, it feel sort of like a hang out movie.
Aside from the glorious technical presentation. It doesn’t really feel like the movie is doing a lot to earn our interest and its characters.
So why did I enjoy watching it, if I wasn’t really all that invested in the narrative?
Because I love film. I love film history. I love directing and this movie has a lot of that and it feels like something that I can study. It just doesn’t feel like something I can enjoy watching again.
I’m going to give Mank movie 2020 a B.
It’ll probably get nominated for a lot of Oscars and I think it absolutely deserves cinematography, sound editing, directing. I am just don’t really know that I will never watch it again. Which is so strange since I love interest so much.
Nevertheless I’m glad you got to make it. I know this was a major passion project form especially since his late father wrote it and I’m glad that I watched it so I don’t know.
It’s on Netflix. it’s not much of an investment to watch the film and I think that. Especially if you know of Citizen Kane have seen it that will enhance your experience, but I know and love Citizen Kane. It didn’t really enhance my experience. It was just like oh yeah I get what they’re doing.
Guys thank you so much for reading my reviews. See you next time.
Mank Movie Trailer