Mank is pretty Dank.

Listen, I love David Fincher as much as the next annoying film student does. To me, he is a dependable director meaning his ‘weakest’ films are still rather good. I remember watching Fight Club for the first time, I think I was about 14? 15? And I was watching it in my teenage bedroom. Some of the best films I have ever seen where viewed in my teenage bedroom by my teenage self- the walls plastered with posters of Fall Out Boy and a wardrobe full of galaxy leggings. So, Fincher is a dear friend of mine. Now when it comes to having a bias about films, I have a few different trains of thoughts. There are certain artists (YIKES, I realise that calling them artists is pretentious and that art is subjective but just stick with me here.) who I favour. But newsflash: everyone has favourites! Their favourite colour, favourite season, favourite food etc. These artists in question could blink and It would be ground-breaking to me, 5 stars, send in the Oscars! But I also think that this means I hold them to a higher standard. I feel like one of those crazy sport coaches drenched in sweat screaming from the side-lines because I know they are capable of achieving greatness: “Come on! Is that all ya got!?”

So, when I heard that dear David was making a film about the writing of the script of Citizen Kane my ears pricked up. Citizen Kane is an interesting one because even non film aficionados will know of it, regardless if they have seen it or not. Similar to the shower scene in Psycho, pretty much everyone knows it but hasn’t necessarily watched the film and understood it socially and critically. Orson Welles is also held in remarkably high regards within the film and arts community as a pioneer and a genius. Now, you know I have plenty of problems with the auteur theory and I was hoping that Mank would demystify it and well… you’ll see.

It’s my first time in a cinema in a month or so. For those of you reading from anywhere outside the UK or possibly me reading this in the future, the UK has just come out of another national lockdown and into a new tier system where here in London cinemas are allowed to reopen for the first time since Halloween. Given the recent HBO MAX/WB agreement I would encourage you all to support your local cinema, or better yet, support your local independent cinema. I hopped off the bus across the street from Trafalgar square because I wanted to look at the Christmas tree and then wondered up to Leicester Square to my beloved Prince Charles Cinema. The first cinema I ever walked into a when I first moved to London, it holds a lot of sentimentality to me and I think its pretty impossible to be sad when I’m holding one of their tiny little tickets in my grubby little hands.

Do you need to watch Citizen Kane before you watch Mank? Preferably yes. You don’t need to, but I feel like you’ll enjoy the film more if you do. You’ll be able to spot all the easter eggs and point them out like that pointy DiCaprio meme.

Our story follows Herman Mankiewicz, (Gary Oldman) or Mank to his friends. A sloppy alcoholic but incredible screenwriter as he attempts to write the script for Citizen Kane. Oldman is charismatic and chaotic in the best way, the audience dug his whip smart comebacks and slurred speeches, but our hearts belong to him after we learn of his political affiliation to socialism and sharing wealth. He becomes wrapped up in the race between Upton Sinclair and Frank Merriam to become the governor of California and argues against fascism when his colleagues bring up Hitler at a party. Their breathy and light conversational tone sickens our boy Mank.

Lily Collins as Rita Alexander is delightful as ever, she is Mank’s scribe as he has been badly injured in a car accident, his bones are broken but his mind is buzzing with ideas. Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies is a beaming light in this film, I enjoyed every moment she was onscreen. I loved her makeup, her outfits and her Bronx- early talkies- accent. Tom Burke as Orson Welles! The voice? Check! The look? Check! If I could greenlight a biopic about Orson starring Burke I would have done it in a heartbeat. The score is also banging on this one, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross bodied it yet again and this time using only 1940s instruments! I mean, did you expect anything less from them?

Mank is pretty dank, I will say that much. I’m a sucker for black and white cinematography. I mean, shoot some venetian blinds and I am onboard. The picture fades to black at the end of every scene, it’s got those little circles in the top righthand corner of the frame indicating a reel change. (we love a surprising Fight Club reference Mr. Fincher) I loved the typewriters, old cars and fat cigars. There are also Easter eggs ON DECK the whole film, Not necessarily all of them relating to Citizen Kane but to other important Hollywoodland people of note like David O. Selznick and Louis B. Mayer. I loved all the writers room stuff because I definitely over romanticise this time in film history. However, It lacks what I like to call ‘slapability’ or how hard a film slaps. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, some of my favourite films don’t slap that hard but, in my eyes, Fincher is one of the directors I can depend upon to deliver a film that rates high on that slap-o-meter. So, I was surprised to see a more laid-back version of Finch. If Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a love letter to the Hollywood of yesteryear, then Mank is a ransom letter to warn of a dark time in Hollywood that may have already be having a renaissance.