{"id":106539,"date":"2020-11-06T20:00:20","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T17:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/fincher-does-hollywood-film\/"},"modified":"2020-11-06T20:00:20","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T17:00:20","slug":"fincher-does-hollywood-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/fincher-does-hollywood-film\/","title":{"rendered":"#Fincher Does Hollywood \u2013 \/Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Fincher Does Hollywood \u2013 \/Film<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

\"mank<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t enough to tell us what a man did. You\u2019ve got to tell us who he was.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Citizen Kane<\/em><\/p>\n

Herman J. Mankiewicz, genius Hollywood screenwriter, has been sent away to Arizona. Broken \u2013 his leg is in a thick cast following a car accident \u2013 and eager to get drunk at the drop of a hat, Mank \u2013 as everyone calls him \u2013 has been tasked with hammering out a screenplay for Hollywood\u2019s new golden boy,\u00a0Orson Welles. And Mank has a whopper of an idea: he\u2019s going to write about news<\/a>paper tycoon\u00a0William Randolph Hearst, one of the most powerful men in the country. It\u2019s a subject Mank is well-versed in, having spent countless nights drunkenly cavorting at Hearst\u2019s castle-like estate\u00a0San Simeon. Mank knows Hearst. Knows the people in Hearst\u2019s inner-circle. And with his clacking typewriter, he\u2019s going to destroy them all \u2013 and possibly himself, in the process.<\/p>\n

The first thing you notice about David Fincher<\/strong>\u2018s\u00a0Mank<\/em><\/strong> is the sound, and I don\u2019t just mean Trent Reznor<\/strong> and Atticus Ross<\/strong>\u2018 swooning score. The audio here is not what you\u2019re used to hearing from a Netflix movie, or a modern movie in general<\/a>. It\u2019s warm, but also booming. It doesn\u2019t sound overdubbed, or even out-of-place. But it sounds like the type of audio you\u2019d hear were you watching\u00a0Mank<\/em> in some grand movie palace. You can imagine yourself sitting in a plush, somewhat stiff theater chair, the screen looming above you, tall shadows shimmering across stone walls. Fincher even includes cue marks \u2013 aka cigarette burns \u2013 to imply that some unseen projectionist is about to change reels.\u00a0This is a film that transports you back in time.<\/p>\n

Time travel<\/a> is baked into\u00a0Mank<\/em>, in a way, as the narrative keeps jumping back and forth to Mank\u2019s days pounding away at a screenplay that will one day become\u00a0Citizen Kane<\/em>\u00a0and his early, glory days in Hollywood. Fincher transports us to these various places and times by having scene headings appear on-screen \u2013 EXT. STUDIO LOT \u2013 DAY (FLASHBACK), etc. In those flashbacks, Mank is in high-demand \u2013 a big shot screenwriter at MGM working with a pool of other writers who seem to mostly sit around in smoky offices, hats tilted back on their heads, newspapers sprawled open in their laps. Occasionally, they get called into a meeting to hash out the script<\/a> for the next big thing. They bullshit their way through it, cribbing ideas from other productions and adding just the right amount of flare to make the pitch seem fresh and original. So it goes. It\u2019s the Hollywood way.<\/p>\n

The Depression is roaring, and studio boss\u00a0Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard<\/strong>) wants everyone to take a pay cut. He tries to frame it as a positive thing \u2013 he\u2019d rather pay everyone less than have to fire everyone, you understand. But there\u2019s a solution on the horizon to everyone\u2019s problems.\u00a0Upton Sinclair, the muckraking journalist, is running for Governor of California. Sinclair is a social<\/a>ist, and to people like Mayer (and William Randolph Hearst), such a distinction screams \u201cCOMMUNIST\u201d in big, red letters.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Tinseltown to do? Make movies<\/a>, of course. After Mank casually tosses off the idea to Mayer\u2019s partner Irving Thalberg (Ferdinand Kingsley<\/strong>) that motion pictures could be used to crush Sinclair\u2019s candidacy, Thalberg does just that. He recruits a budding filmmaker to start creating negative newsreel ads against Sinclair. Newsreels in which out-of-work extras pose as Soviets straight from Mother Russia, ready to sing the praises of Comrade Sinclair. Newsreels where crusty hobos come crawling off boxcars like insects scattering at light, claiming to be drawn to California by Sinclair\u2019s socialist ideas. The message is clear: if California elects Sinclair, California will go straight to hell.<\/p>\n

And it works. Sinclair loses, and loses big (historical spoiler alert). But Mank actually\u00a0likes<\/em> Sinclair. Likes what he stands for. And when it dawns on him that his own loud mouth helped bring down his preferred candidate, it just doesn\u2019t sit right. It awakens something in the drunken screenwriter. Now, burdened with a conscience<\/a>, Mank decides to do what he does best \u2013 write. He\u2019s been partnered with Hollywood\u2019s next big thing, Orson Welles, played with just the right amount of pomposity by Tom Burke<\/strong>.
\nThalberg may have been the one who put the dirty tricks against Sinclair in play, but Mank knows it was really Hearst (Charles Dance<\/strong>, stately as ever) who really bankrolled the idea. And Mank wants\u2026what? Justice? Revenge? These are murky waters, and Mank doesn\u2019t just wade into them \u2013 he goes stumbling in, soaking himself in the process.<\/p>\n

Because Mank has a serious problem. Not only is Hearst so powerful that he could have Mank crushed, but Hearst\u2019s inner circle is also, by extent, Mank\u2019s inner circle. Mank is cozy with Hearst\u2019s mistress, actress\u00a0Marion Davies, played with just the right mix of ditziness and secret smarts by a glowing\u00a0Amanda Seyfried<\/strong>. Into Mank\u2019s script goes a ditzy actress, mistress to Hearst stand-in Charles Foster Kane. Mank swears up and down that the character\u00a0isn\u2019t<\/em> based on Marion. He even says so to her face. But both of them give each other a sly, knowing smile. Mank can\u00a0pontificate all he wants on how the character in his script is a composite character. But deep down, both of them know the truth.<\/p>\n

Marion may be agreeable to her fictional counterpart, but the same can\u2019t be said for Hearst, or for the people who cling to Hearst like boozy barnacles; a gaggle of garish, intoxicated ghosts haunting the towering halls of\u00a0San Simeon. By writing this script, Mank is not only about to alienate some powerful people \u2013 he\u2019s also about to destroy his career. But it also might just be the best thing he\u2019s ever going to write.<\/p>\n

In the script, penned by Fincher\u2019s late father Jack Fincher<\/strong>, bridges are worth burning for the sake of good art. Sure, you can dress it up under the pretense of doing the right thing; of Mank righting a wrong he accidentally created; of Mank taking a political stand. But does he really believe that? Or is this just the script he\u2019s been waiting his whole life to write? The big brick of text (the first draft is 327 pages) that will be associated with his name forever \u2013 provided he can convince Welles to give him a screenwriting credit?<\/p>\n

Gary Oldman<\/strong> is the man anchoring all of this, and as is usually the case with the actor, he grabs hold of the role and shakes the life out of it. The character is in an almost constant state of drunkenness, which allows Oldman plenty of room to play and garner both laughs and pity. We\u2019re amused when Mank gets a little tipsy, and then we\u2019re alarmed where he gets so fall-down drunk that it looks like he\u2019s going to hurt himself. He\u2019s backed up by a game<\/a> supporting cast, but it can\u2019t be denied that\u00a0Tuppence Middleton, as Mank\u2019s long-suffering wife Sara, and\u00a0Lily Collins, as Mank\u2019s secretary Rita, are underserved in underwritten roles. Collins has a\u00a0bit<\/em> more to do, but not by much.
\nAt first blush,\u00a0Mank<\/em> isn\u2019t your typical David Fincher flick. Yes, it\u2019s gorgeously mounted and meticulously crafted. But it doesn\u2019t\u00a0feel<\/em> like Fincher\u2019s other movies. And yet, when you look closer\u2026it does. Because like all great Fincher films,\u00a0Mank<\/em> is about obsession. The obsession with getting something right. The obsession with creating good art. The obsessions with being remembered long after the whole world has faded to black.<\/p>\n

The script is punchy and not afraid to lean into melodrama, and Fincher is clearly having fun bringing his father\u2019s words to life. Much of the story here feels lifted from\u00a0film critic Pauline Kael\u2019s controversial \u201cRaising Kane\u201d essay, which lays all the work of\u00a0Kane<\/em> at Mankiewicz\u2019s feet and cuts Welles out of the equation. Several notable people have discredited the essay\u2019s claims, but no matter \u2013 it makes for a cracking good yarn. And a great movie. It\u2019s the stuff that dreams are made of, to quote another old Hollywood story from 1941.<\/p>\n

\/Film rating: 9 out of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cool Posts From Around the Web:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n <\/div>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Fincher Does Hollywood \u2013 \/Film” \u201cIt isn\u2019t enough to tell us what a man did. You\u2019ve got to tell us who he was.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Citizen Kane Herman J. Mankiewicz, genius Hollywood screenwriter, has been sent away to Arizona. Broken \u2013 his leg is in a thick cast following a car accident \u2013 and eager to get…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/mank-review.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1568,17871,50324,14318,14319,1523,1570,17094,14322,7598,1377,1552],"class_list":["post-106539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-featured-stories-sidebar","tag-amanda-seyfried","tag-ce","tag-citizen-kane","tag-david-fincher","tag-drama","tag-features","tag-gary-oldman","tag-mank","tag-movie-reviews","tag-netflix","tag-true-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}