Mank

The movie Mank is getting a lot of Oscar buzz right now (for Best Picture and for director David Fincher) so, of course, I wanted to see it.  I had the chance yesterday and the hype is definitely real!  Screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) is a washed up alcoholic who has burned all of his bridges in Hollywood but he is chosen by Orson Welles (Tom Burke), who has been given carte blanche by RKO Pictures, to write the screenplay for his first movie.  However, this comes with a "for hire" clause which means that Mankiewicz will be paid but won't receive credit for writing the script. When Mankiewicz is injured in a serious car accident, Welles sets him up on an isolated ranch in the desert with three minders, a housekeeper named Fraulein Frieda (Monika Gossman), a typist named Rita Alexander (Lily Collins), and producer John Houseman (Sam Troughton), to keep him working on a strict deadline and, more importantly, to keep him sober.  As he writes what will become Citizen Kane, there are flashbacks to his relationships with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance) and studio mogul Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard).  Mankiewicz is disillusioned by how they used their power to influence the 1934 California gubernatorial race and this informs the script.  His interactions with actress Marion Davies (a brilliant Amanda Seyfried), Hearst's mistress, are also explored, although he repeatedly denies that she is the model for Susan Alexander Kane.  He finishes the script and, despite warnings from his brother Joseph (Tom Pelphrey) and Marion that it is dangerous, he decides that it is the best thing he has ever written and fights Welles for credit.  This movie is incredibly dense and it assumes that viewers know the plot of Citizen Kane (it is referenced dozens of times without explanation) but it is absolutely brilliant.  The story, which may or may not be true (authorship of Citizen Kane has been disputed for decades), is fascinating and cinephiles will find the depiction of Old Hollywood as glamorous but also corrupt very intriguing and thought-provoking.  It is a technical masterpiece with black and white cinematography, shot composition, lighting, and editing that mimic the look and feel of Citizen Kane and an authentic-sounding score recorded in mono by regular Fincher collaborators Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.  Oldman is outstanding but I was especially impressed with Seyfried who gives the best performance of her career.  The supporting cast is also very good (cinephiles will love all of the cameos portraying Old Hollywood legends), especially Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg (the scene where he says he makes no apology for doing what he has to do gave me goosebumps) and Dance (the scene where Hearst escorts Mankiewicz out of San Simeon also gave me goosebumps).  I loved it and consider it to be a must-see for film aficionados but I concede that some might find it confusing (especially for anyone who hasn't seen Citizen Kane) or boring (it is, after all, about the writing of a screenplay).  It is in theaters for a limited run and then it will stream on Netflix beginning December 4.