Mank – 2020-21
Well, Gary Oldman does it again. He was incredible. This had the potential to be a slow and plodding movie, but Gary Oldman is such a good actor, he elevated the film past interesting to captivating. True, the script was good enough on its own, and the directing was carefully planned and very well-executed, and yes, the rest of the cast did a fantastic job. But really, we’re all here to be amazed by Oldman, and as usual, he didn’t disappoint.
Oldman is the kind of actor who completely transforms himself and totally inhabits every role he plays. Here he plays the witty, charming, washed up, alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter perfectly. I’ve said before that drunk is often hard to portray convincingly, but it was one of the man’s defining characteristics. It was never over the top, never unrealistic. So, I’ll give Oldman two thumbs up for another mesmerizing performance.
The film was about the old Hollywood screenwriter, Herman Mankiewicz, wonderfully played by Oldman. But the movie isn’t really a full biopic. The film only chronicles his life while he was writing the script for, some would say, one of the greatest films of all time, Citizen Kane. Personally, I think Citizen Kane’s greatness had more to do with the directing talents of Orson Wells. But that’s neither here nor there. At the very least, it is said that it is the best screenplay Mankiewicz ever wrote.
Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood, and this one is a classic tale from its golden age. It had characters that portrayed some of the real powerhouses of the famous studios like Louis B. Mayer, played by Arliss Howard, Irving Thalberg, played by Ferdinand Kingsly, John Houseman, played by Sam Troughton, and of course Orson Wells, wonderfully played by Tom Burke. Other notable celebrities portrayed in the movie were William Randolph Hurst, played by Charles Dance, Marion Davies, played by Amanda Seyfried, and Tom Pelphrey playing Herman’s brother Joseph Mankiewicz.
According to Wikipedia, in smaller parts, we saw Charles Lederer, David O. Selznick, Charlie Chaplin, and a host of other famous cameos like Geofre S. Kaufman, Greta Garbo, Joseph von Sternberg, Norma Shearer, Eleanor Boardman, Joan Crawford, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Billie Dove, Rexford Tugwell, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Charles MacArthur, Darryl F. Zanuck, S. J. Perelman, Carole Lombard, and Eddie Cantor. Yes, Hollywood loves old Hollywood.
Now, from my modern perspective, I actually found Citizen Kane to be a bit of a snoozer. But critics will tell you that it was a really groundbreaking film, and in 1941, when it was released, that was certainly true. One of the things that Mank tried to do was to emulate a lot of Well’s direction style and choices that made Citizen Kane so impressive. The use of low camera angles, and something called deep focus were used, just like the 1941 film. Deep focus is a technique by which the focus of the foreground, the mid-ground, and the background, are all equally sharp and clear.
And then there was the choice to film the movie in black and white, honoring the films of the 30s and 40s. And they didn’t do what most modern black and white films do, which is to film in color, and then desaturate the footage in post. According to Mank’s Director of Photography, Gregg Toland, “The black-and-white camera just has this kind of lustrous silvery quality to it that you look for in a silver gelatin print that you just don’t get when you desaturate color.”
As an interesting note, Citizen Kane is known for being nominated for nine categories at the Academy Awards, but winning only one Oscar. Despite its critical acclaim, it did poorly at the box-office, mostly because of how it angered Hurst, who refused to let his papers advertise the film. That one award did win was for Best Original Screenplay, for which Wells and Mankiewicz shared the credit. Mank was nominated for ten awards, and took home two Oscars, one for Best Cinematography, and the other for Best Production Design.
The two actors besides Oldman that I’d like to give special mention to are Amanda Seyfried and Charles Dance. Seyfried’s role could have been a dull one, but she made it her own and gave us a nuanced and skilled performance. And Dance… well, it’s hard to ignore Tywin Lannister. He has that air of stern power down to a science, and it is exactly what was needed to portray the rich and famous media mogul.
And finally, credit where credit is due. The director, David Fincher, really put together a well-made movie. Even if Gary Oldman hadn’t played the lead with such skill and commitment, the film would still have been good in its own right. Fincher paid just enough homage to Citizen Kane to please the critics and Hollywood, but not so much that he would be accused of blatantly copying the other film.