David Fincher’s Mank is a black and white beauty, filmed to look like an old Hollywood picture. The cinematography is stunning from Erik Messerschmidt and the production and set designers Donald Graham Burt (Gone Girl, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Jan Pascale (Argo, Sicario). The film jumps out of the screen and makes it feel like you are in old Hollywood.

The writing here is perfect from the late Jack Fincher who wrote the script back in the 1990’s, it was later picked up by his son David Fincher who shot the film in 2019. And of course, David Fincher’s directing of the picture is perfection.

Gary Oldman plays Herman J. Mankiewicz incredibly well, from the bed ridden scenes of him writing Citizen Kane (1941) to the flashbacks giving context to his place in the Hollywood system really paint a picture of 1930’s and 40’s Hollywood and the movie studio system. The politics of the era can be seen in some scenes with some emphasis on the 1934 US election, some of it can be messy but overall it makes a point about how political Hollywood has been even since the early years.

Amanda Seyfried and Lily Collins are also standouts here as Marion Davies and Rita Alexander respectively. Tom Burke as Orson Welles also makes a good impression. The overall ensemble is great to see in flashbacks.

Rating: 9.5/10