MANK

Directing: A-
Acting: A-
Writing: A
Cinematography: A-
Editing: A-

It’s been ten months now since I last saw a film in a movie theater, and in all that time, I have indeed missed movie-going dearly. But, it’s been in a much more abstract sense, being in terms of the overall experience as opposed to being tied to a specific movie I wished I could have seen on the big screen. This is hardly a surprise, given all the blockbusters that were delayed again and again, many of them even now delayed until next year. But even this depends on things like the studio and its parent company: not everyone has an HBO Max they can pivot their entire slate to as part of a long-game strategy.

That said, things are shifting, and in a way few people imagined possible a year ago. And this includes more movies, coming sooner than later, which actually would indeed work better on movie theater screens than they do on home television screens. David Fincher’s new film Mank is the year’s first notable example of that.

And it’s not because it’s a blockbuster of any sort, but because it’s great cinema. Its technical finesse just doesn’t translate as well on the small screen, and I found myself really wishing I could have been watching on a projector screen. Now, if I were to offer Mank any concrete criticism at all, it’s that although it remains an excellent film on its own merits, it is also somewhat self-conscious about being “great cinema.” This is a key distinction from the many other films that have gained attention this year in a way they could never have any other year, revealing themselves to have shifted into the realm of greatness through a far more organic process. I would never quite call Mank “organic.” In fact it’s rather focused on a meticulous attention to detail, both in its present-day storytelling and its references to cinema history—fundamentally, it’s about artifice. But in Fincher’s context, that is done in all the best ways.

Mank is the kind of film that won’t ever top my best-of list, but I wouldn’t be bothered by it eventually winning Best Picture anyway. Of course, like everything else in 2020, the Academy Awards are to be wildly different this year, starting with being scheduled two months later than planned. Thus, even with all the Oscar buzz this film is getting now, there’s plenty of time for people to forget about it in favor of something else to be released between now and then. And honestly, this film has gotten so much critical praise that some might come away from it feeling it was over-hyped. For the record, I don’t really agree with that assessment.

I would say that its script, but David’s late father Jack Fincher, after decades of trying in vain to get it made until Netflix bankrolled it, is rather dense. It is also absolutely enhanced by a working knowledge of Orson Welles’s seminal 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane. Some even suggest watching that film just prior to this one as a double feature, but even in quarantine, who has the time or the bandwidth for that? I considered it myself, but came back to my long-held conviction that a film should work on its own merits. And Mank absolutely does. It’s just that its universe expands in richness the more you delve into it—the degree to which you do that is up to you.

One thing about the casting is a bit odd: Gary Oldman is 62, playing Citizen Kane script writer Herman Mankiewicz (hence the title, his nickname), who reveals himself at one point to be 43. Granted, Mankiewicz was evidently quite the drunk, which surely ages a man, but Oldman still seems like a stretch. Then again, Oldman’s performance is so great, conveying a uniquely charismatic casual confidence, it’s easy to overlook. The true standout, however, is Amanda Seyfried, of pop trash Mamma Mia! (2008) fame. Here she is unrecognizable, giving an Oscar-worthy performance all her own as MGM actress, and William Randolph Hearst’s longtime mistress, Marion Davies.

Hearst unsurprisingly plays a key role in this film, played flawlessly (as always) by Charles Dance, as the newspaper mogul has always been known as the unofficial target/subject of Orson Welles’s portrayal in Citizen Kane. More importantly, he was the target/subject of Mankiewicz’s original script—the credit for which he shared with Welles, even though Welles really didn’t write any of it; and for which the film later won its single Academy Award. It’s also notable that Welles, played here by Tom Burke, plays a minor role in the Mank story, existing onscreen in but a few select scenes and otherwise existing solely on the other end of phone calls during Mankiewicz’s convalescence after a car accident.

Mank is a historical drama, shot in beautiful black and white cinematography in a clear ode to Citizen Kane itself, about a particular moment in 1940s Hollywood, but it’s about a whole lot more than just the making of what many critics still regard as the best film ever made. A particularly notable and memorable subplot involves the 1934 California gubernatorial campaign of Republican Frank Merriam, who beat Democrat Upton Sinclair with the help of MGM’s hiring of actors to pretend to be real voters in their campaign ads. It’s a subtle reminder that the “fake news” bullshit we get so exasperated with today is far from new—it’s been going on for decades, the better part of a century.

Lastly, I must bring up the editing, as Mank follows a relatively similar narrative structure to Citizen Kane itself, with many flashbacks to nonlinear dates in the past used to inform the “present-day” of the story. They key difference here is something I rather liked: with each flashback, a line of script stage direction appears onscreen, identifying the year we’re going back to, and always specifying “(FLASHBACK).” It works incredibly well, making it impossible to get confused as to where or when we are, and it’s less patronizing than it is just plain useful.

Mank is available to stream on Netflix right now, and incidentally was always produced as a Netflix film. In fact, it’s the third year in as many years we’re getting a Netflix film that is some level of Oscar bait, after the jaw-dropping technical proficiency of Roma (2018) and last year’s good-but-wildly-overrated The Irishman. The previous films both garnered many Academy Award nominations but not as many wins as Netflix clearly hoped for, and I suspect the same will be the case with Mank. That said, while I still think Roma is objectively the best of the three, even with the density of its excellent script, I would venture to say Mank is the most accessible. They key is just to get you to press “play” on this one even when there are countless other, perfectly worthy options over many streaming platforms. All I can tell you is it’s absolutely worth it.

Mank takes his appealingly casual confidence on to the next scene.

Overall: A-