Mank review with a little bit of spoilers

“I know you” was Marion’s first words to Herman Mankiewicz, this was the same way I felt because I had seen Citizen Kane (1940) prior to viewing this, so most of the things in the movie looked and sounded familiar

 I strongly recommend seeing Citizen Kane before seeing this. Mank is a story of stories, but primarily it is about Herman’s journey in writing the first script draft of Citizen Kane after Orson Welles slashed the number of days he had to spend writing and everything that inspired the story. It is also a story about the complexity of Hollywood studios, the impact of the great depression on the infant film industry, filmmakers meddling with politics, the emergence of the Writer’s guild of America (WGA). While all these different stories progressed, the primary plot was still at full sail.

 The non-linearity of the movie was marvelously done, it leaves the audience panting to find out the WHY for some of the actions of the characters, most are rooted in as far back as 10 years. The movie consistently goes back and forth between the past and the present.

Gary Oldman’s excellent delivery coupled with Amanda Seyfield’s embodiment of her character made the movie a delight to see. When I got the news of David Fincher making a movie about the making of the movie Citizen Kane, I wondered if he had something up his sleeves because prior to this, his older movies such as Se7en, Gone girl, the classical Fight club amongst many others were all modern day movies and transcended the genre of thrillers and dark comedy, they were not biopics.  

 Asides the story of Herman Mankiewicz, anyone interested in the golden age of Hollywood would also find this movie as a delight. We witness one scene where the wittiness of a group of filmmakers is tested, they aced it as they come up with a mock Frankenstein script in a matter of minutes. We also see a bit of the rivalry between some of the early studios in Hollywood.

During Louis Meyer’s birthday party, the discussions veered towards the World War and we see Mank telling the group about Germany starting its first concentration camp, banning and burning of books which is seen in Taika Watiti’s 2019 movie, Jojo Rabbit. The group also talked about the banning of movies which Quentin Tarantino goes to great lengths to show in Inglorious basterds, in short Hollywood felt the absence of the German audience.  The next stop for the conversation was on the socialist ideology that Upton Sinclair preached, he also had his past as a writer for Hollywood. Sinclair is heavily opposed as his ideology and campaign promises revolved around socialism, Louis Meyer counters communism and socialism with “they both want something for nothing”. Louis Meyer and William Hearst go to great lengths to protect their capitalist dreams. When it was time for the election, MGM sponsors an anti-Sinclair movie which went ahead to influence the votes against him, the director of the movie after realizing his action makes a rash decision. It is important to note Mank forced the hands of MGM to conjure such deviousness.

We see Mank stepping on William Randolph and Louis Meyer’s toe as the script for Citizen Kane is a direct depiction of William’s life, this goes on to strain the relationship he has with Marion Davis and Charles Lederer. Hollywood which was much of a power tussle then sees William and Louis Meyer try to stop the production of the script, what was funny was they shamelessly trying to buy RKO radio out when they were still owing their staffs salaries of over 8 weeks, it just shows how corrupt they were.

 The script for Mank was written by late Jack Fincher, David’s Father in the 1990s. The story is one of addiction, relationships, intimacy, and betrayal. I find it problematic that all that Orson didn’t have enough screen time, I understand the movie is also not about him but Herman. Till date, the authorship and roles played in the creation of the masterpiece is still a bone of contention. Regardless, David Fincher did a Manknanimous work in bringing his father’s script to live.