Mank (2020) Review

Mank (2020) Review

 

Dir. David Fincher  

 

David Fincher's newest film is a love letter to the Hollywood of Old.

 

 

Monochromatic, Monaural, yet this film is anything but monotonous in its appreciation of classic Hollywood. 

It’s a welcome exploration of the cinema of old that couldn’t further highlight just how much this art form has changed over time.

 

Mank follows Herman Mankowitz, the man who penned Orson Welles' classic picture Citizen Kane, widely regarded to be the greatest film of all time. We follow Mank as he muses over the completion of the screenplay, and frequently flashback to his earlier experiences in the studio system that inspired his writing and plagued his career. 

 

This production is a beautiful homage to the Hollywood golden age. The whole style emulates an old movie, filmed specially in Black and White and ambitiously produced with monaural sound, perfectly capturing the look and feel of a black and white picture. This feels like cinema heritage, a very rare moment of cinema emulating its greatest classics with success.

Some may shrug it off as a transparently sentimental film about a bygone era, but it’s beautiful cinema nonetheless and it’s a welcome break from the somewhat spinning and smothering nature of modern Hollywood. 

This is very clearly a passion project from David Fincher, based on a screenplay written by his late father. This is a film the director has wanted to make all his life, and the passion bleeds through every grainy frame. 

 

Mank isn’t the first film to attempt to recreate the noir aesthetic but for me it is the most organic feeling attempt. I feel like you could bring a man from 1940 to 2020 and convince him that this was a film at his local theatre.

 

 

The actors on offer in Mank are a fully stocked arsenal of screen talents,  headed with expected skill by Gary Oldman.

Oldman, as always, is a truly enthralling actor to watch. Transformative, yet familiar enough to illicit empathy. He paints a slurring, erratic picture of an overlooked icon of cinema, simultaneously outspoken and unheard. 

 

This film is full of show stealing actors, often excelling in small roles. Charles Dance as WR Hurst, the man suspected for inspiring the character of Charles Foster Kane, is an expert in eye acting, matched with his usual droll and intent delivery. Arliss Howard as Louis Mayer, the father of MGM, delivers some top tier dialogue with gusto. Amanda Seyfried and Lily Collins both strike heavy blows, the latter feeling somewhat detached from the main narrative but still feeling integral. Last but not least, a brief appearance from the increasingly present Tom Burke as Orson Welles, which is perhaps the most inspired casting decision all year. Burke could have easily relied on his physical resemblance to Welles to carry his performance, but he goes above and beyond to sell us on his voice too. 

 

 

The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is getting a lot of praise and rightly so. Like the entire production, it’s authentically old school, with all the expected beats and sounds. Yet it doesn’t ever stray into parody or pastiche as film noir soundtracks often do. Elegant and suave, many will appreciate its flair.

 

The story begins as a micro look at a craftsman in his habitat, but slowly over its runtime, it zooms out into a slice of life from Old Hollywood and the politics and games that dominated it. Lots of people complain that politics shapes too much of the art we consume in the present day, but I point them no further than films like Citizen Kane to prove that politics has always been integral to cinema from day one. Producers and media moguls are not apolitical, so it’s no surprise that their distributions and pictures are the same. This film highlights the socio political unrest that was crucial to the creation of these studio pictures. 

 

Deliberately slow at times, Mank is sometimes so intellectual and lexical that it borders on inaccessible to the Everyman. This feels intentional though, as Finchers love for this era and these themes is evident. The thing about a director as diverse and experienced as David Fincher is that every film he directs feels like it could be his magnum opus. Mank is no exception to that rule if you ask me. It’s only due to its lack of direct historical relatability that I would say it’s not my favourite of his works. But to say it’s not my favourite Fincher movie is akin to saying  Macbeth is not my favourite Shakespeare play, it doesn’t detract in any way from the sheer artistry of this piece of work. 

 

Mank is a movie for movie lovers and while it may alienate some, the beauty of Mank is that it does everything it set out to do. Mank is niche but passionately so and frantic but beautifully so. 

 

9/10

 

Review by Elliott Thomas Griffiths