Mank

Este año, al igual que Nolan, Fincher se ha entregado a una variante exagerada de su fetiche fuera de los parámetros del cine del público. Mank es su gran retro-narrativa de Hollywoodlandia. O mejor dicho, su ya fallecido padre, que nació durante el periodo en cuestión, y cuyo guión esperaba en el cajón de David en el benévolo Netflix. La fascinación por el visionarismo empresarial de los jefes de los estudios de Hollywood, las fiestas y debates de la alta sociedad en los opulentos salones de las mansiones de lujo, y el retrato íntimo de un guionista dotado que, a pesar de su excentricidad y de su presencia constante en los círculos de profesionales aliados, era más bien un outsider alcohólico. Todo esto puede sonar maravilloso y atractivo (y además está ejecutado con increíble autenticidad) pero el resultado sigue siendo problemático. Fincher entlaza el mundo de la película con la política que al espectador no le interesa, en un escenario determinado, de una época determinada, saltando en el tiempo y entre personajes de los que dice poco o nada, y apenas consigue concentrarse en las motivaciones del personaje principal, en una narración difusa. En algunas partes es fabulosamente entretenida (una visita a los estudios y un decorado exterior) o evoca una avanzada inteligencia creativa, en otras aburre con diálogos inútiles y vacíos. El personaje de William Hearst (Charles Dance), que sería el motiva de Mank para escribir Citizen Kane, queda aquí relegado y no se establece ningún paralelismo sugerente entre la película de Welles y la de Fincher. Repleta de estados de ánimo, posturas y opiniones, esta obra artísticamente ambiciosa seguro que complacerá a académicos, historiadores, cinéfilos y politólogos, pero prefiero piezas narrativamente más hábiles y estimulantes, ya sea cínicamente intelectuales (El juego de Hollywood de Altman) o simplemente sentimental (Ed Wood de Burton). De los actores, lo más parecido a un Oscar es Arliss Howard por su gran interpretación de L.B. Mayer. Ese paseo por la MGM con su emotivo monólogo es una de las escenas cinematográficas del año. «This is the business where the buyer gets nothing for his money but a memory. What he bought still belongs to the man who sold it. That’s the real magic of the movies.» (12.12.2020)

David Fincher is one of the greatest directorial aces and has long since established a position where we know that anything he makes will be at least interesting, and Mank is no exception. However, I suffered quite a bit as a viewer with it. This trip to 1940s Hollywood is no doubt a good film, and the depiction of the era, the politicking of the studios, and the life of a screenwriter who, though he drank a lot, could be all the more honest, is definitely worth watching, even if I was bored from the halfway point on. All those objective and technical qualities I can understand and subscribe to, Fincher knows what he's doing and he does it damn well. It's just that this time he didn't hit the mark for me in theme or indeed form. I simply didn't enjoy watching his new film. And he didn't want to make it any easier. Great atmosphere, a perfect Gary Oldman, great sets and music, but behind all that is the all-too-ordinary story of an all-too-ordinary man. I expect something more progressive from Fincher. Maybe, since he was directing his late father's script, he wanted to keep himself a little bit in check. I could understand that, but I'm not sure it was worth it. (08.12.2020)

A sea of name dropping, perfectly executed visuals, but emotionally speaking, Mank only barely whispered to me here and there, rather than speaking to me coherently. It is the completion of a homework assignment for me and David Fincher, saved from downfall primarily by its unintentional thematic relevance. (23.04.2021)

A formally precise and linguistically exquisite picture about the writing of the screenplay for Citizen Kane. Unfortunately, apart from context of that period, it offers nothing new. Filming according to his father’s screenplay, Fincher nurtured all aspects of this heart-felt project and the way he presents the topic in the style of a forties movie is very appropriate. You can’t tell the difference. The actors are great down to the last one. The music is perfect: Reznor and Russ are brutally moderate, obediently serving the story. But it was strange to listen to Trent’s typical piano playing in a movie that clearly must have been filmed eighty years ago... (06.12.2020)

Mank is a decent piece in the classic puzzle game of pre-war Hollywood, W.R. Hearst, Marion Davies, and RKO 281. Those who only watch this as a bonus to Citizen Kane will be missing out. I can only recommend: study more, much more. (10.12.2020)

In the first minutes, if not seconds, I was amazed by how Mank looks - truly like it was filmed 80 years ago, a beautifully restored film that made it to Netflix this year (and, sadly, not to movie theatres where it REALLY deserves to be). The best part is that the amazement didn't leave me by the end of the film, and it is also great in terms of the script, the actors (Gary Oldman is even better than you think), actresses (the magical Amanda Seyfried and Lily Collins) and music (untypical but excellent Reznor and Ross). If you don't want to watch Citizen Kane before Mank, then after Mank you will. And then you'll probably watch Mank again. (04.12.2020)

It’s very inconsistent, I was a bit disappointed immediately after the screening, then I was writing a more extensive review, during which the film matured in me and, probably too naively, I started looking for cinephile themes and similarities or variations of Citizen Kane, only for Mank to vanish from my mind suspiciously fast a day later. I don’t mind the mythologisation of Orson Wells’s sparse participation in the screenwriting process of Citizen Kane, because I don’t take historical accuracy very much into account when evaluating a film, but it still affected my original idea regarding the coherence of the narration – though I think Fincher develops well the titular character, who in many aspects is a contrast of Charles Foster Kane (which is actually highlighted several times by the style and staging of some scenes), and provides a focused image of the time, but the individual segments feel a little haphazardly put together and don’t move the story forward much. The secondary characters are very numerous and at times it’s not clear what the author wants to say with this or that memory. Also, unlike his other films, Fincher doesn’t deliver any surprises, nor does he pull the viewer into a whirl of psychological motifs. Mank is a nostalgic retro painting that should hang at an art gallery attended only by very specific fans of period films, but it’s hanging between other new releases on Netflix, the brush strokes are clearly contemporaneous and evoke the style of the time only because they are in black and white. I respect Mank as something that brings diversity and a magical recreation of its time that irradiates love for filmmaking, and I must also admit that it didn’t bore me even for a second. I will gladly go back to it, but next time without expecting to find SOMETHING at any cost in this anticipated tribute to a great film and a difficult era (and I really tried and lied myself that that SOMETHING is there), and maybe I will be able to appreciate it from a different perspective. For the time being, though, I have to say that a couple of days ago I wouldn’t have believed that David Fincher could feel so impersonal (though still strong and beautiful to look at). (05.12.2020)

David Fincher me hizo un regalo de Navidad anticipado este año en forma de una experiencia 100% cinéfila, que durante dos horas me permitió sumergirme por completo en la maquinaria de Hollywood y la jungla política de finales de los años 30 y principios de los 40. El guión de Jack Fincher se desenvuelve armoniosamente como un poema y pone en boca de los personajes unos discursos tan vivos como hacía tiempo que no escuchaba en una película. Una película hecha para un estrecho círculo de personas, ¡pero absolutamente impresionante y hecha directamente desde el corazón! (27.12.2020)

Sobre todo, Mank atrae a los espectadores al desentrañar todas las influencias que lo llevaron a escribir el famoso Ciudadano Kane a través del personaje principal de un guionista alcohólico. Sin embargo, la escritura de ese guion en sí toca un segundo o más bien un tercer violín en Manko, que no se filmará en absoluto. El gran Tom Burke interpreta el papel de Orson Welles en la pantalla durante unos tres minutos en total, y Mank tampoco se apega a los hechos históricos: por ejemplo, presenta la participación de Welles en la creación del guion de acuerdo con mitos largamente refutados. De hecho, Mank está más preocupado por el funcionamiento de Hollywood en la década de 1930 y durante la crisis económica e igualmente habla del estado de ánimo político de la misma época y sobre asuntos relacionados con la elección del gobernador de California en 1934, lo que, por supuesto, no afecta tanto a la audiencia como algo atractivo. Pero ese no es el problema. El problema es que nada de esto se maneja de manera atractiva. Entiendo completamente el deseo de Fincher de hacer una película basada en el guion retrasado de su padre, pero desafortunadamente es un escenario lleno de personajes medio definidos y con poco interés, que a menudo pronuncian oraciones sutiles y bien dirigidas, pero qué pasa si no hay nadie con quien generar una relación en la pantalla. Además, la segunda mitad fundamentalmente pierde atracción y, con la excepción de la escena de borrachera en una cena de disfraces, ni siquiera contiene algo notable. Por ejemplo, Ed Wood de Tim Burton fue creado con una intención similar y resultó mucho mejor. Mank también se relaciona con el Ciudadano Kane por sus esfuerzos de tener una retro-forma audiovisual, que es impresionante pero no consistente (después de todo, se rodó en formato digital de pantalla ancha), por tener una estructura narrativa complicada llena de flashbacks (entre los cuales salta de manera bastante extraña de lugar a lugar) y por varias alusiones diferentes (citas visuales, menciones de, por ejemplo, trineos y capullos). Por lo tanto, es definitivamente necesario ver el Ciudadano Kane con anticipación. Afortunadamente, ya no es necesario centrarse en las figuras clave de la entonces sociedad de Hollywood, pero definitivamente es una ventaja (13.12.2020)

Mank certainly doesn't hide its Oscar ambitions and at the same time represents one among a number of films where (academic) form rolls over (audience-friendly) content. The black-and-white visuals, the fading blackouts, the vintage opening credits and the premise of the film take the viewer back to the golden era of Hollywood, a time of big studios, bright stars and screenwriting teams and solitaires. David Fincher's Mank is a skillfully made biopic, but for most of its running time it lacks any dramatic or deeper scene – it wasn't until near the end, when Mank's pours out of his heart while watching Citizen Kane, that I felt stronger emotions. A promising film in terms of acting and themes, but one that limps along on a lackluster execution. (18.04.2021)

"WhY dOEsN’t FiNCher MaKe aNoTHeR Se7en?!?§" the movie. A work hardly applicable in a non-American environment (god, just the idea that it has Czech dubbing or subtitles in the usual Netflix quality), for which one can't be mad at Jarmila Střížkova here for absolutely not knowing where its head is at. In our confines, then, it's mainly a problem that among the mainstream cashless-market critics, there is no one who has the will to interpret and articulate the film to the local viewer, used to boredly clicking through the endless Netflix offerings in his sweatpants on the couch to see if there is anything else capable of engaging him. We all laughed at the Spáčilová until we discovered that there never was a Spáčilová, it was always just us. The absence of Mank from theaters is one of the most unfortunate things to happen this year. (14.12.2020)

Dopřejme Davidu Fincherovi, že si natočil takový film, jenž je určen pro něj, pár jeho skalních příznivců a hrstku fajnšmekrů. Za zážitky spojené se Sedmičkou či Klubem rváčů si může dovolit splnit patrně nějaký svůj umělecký sen. Protrpěl jsem prvních čtyřicet minut, kdy jsem si rval vlasy, že to tak dlouho nevydržím. Karta se otočila scénou večeře u Williama Hearsta. Od té několikaminutové vybroušené konverzace mě Mank chytnul a přes pár opět slabších a nudných scén jsem do konce již vydržel i se zájmem. Nelze předpokládat, že běžný divák bude obeznámen s osobností Uptona Sinclaira, okolnostmi Velké hospodářské krize či Orsonem Wellsem. Já jsem také některé postavy neznal a dohledal si je a rozšířil si tak faktografické obzory, což u filmů miluji - dokáží mě obohatit vědomostně i jazykově. Gary Oldman si připsal další vynikající výkon, Charles Dance nepřekvapil svým uhrančivým pohledem a Lili Collins tomu černobílému obrazu dodala aspoň trochu fyzické krásy a půvabu. Diametrálně se liší můj pohled po začátku filmu a na jeho konci. Mank si zaslouží pozornost, ale vyžaduje faktografické znalosti, trpělivost a uvolněnou náladu - pustit si to v týdnu po práci, asi to vypnu hned. (18.04.2021)

David Fincher succeeded in making a movie with a great retro vibe, amazing visuals, a soundtrack that takes you back to the 30s/40s, and a decent cast. But in the process of creating all that period perfection, everyone seemed to have slightly forgotten about the story. It turned out to be quite boring given the length of the movie. The film wasn't uninteresting, but it dragged. (24.06.2021)

After 6 long years since the phenomenal Gone Girl, David Fincher returns to the feature-length format with the autobiographical Mank, based on a screenplay by his father. Honestly, I was slightly dismayed the moment Netflix announced this project, as it seemed at first blush like a waste of my all-time favorite filmmaker's talents. For Fincher, this is undoubtedly a rather personal project and dream, which unfortunately left a very impersonal impression and an at times reprehensibly boring portrait of one eccentric screenwriter. The biggest problem arises when you want to assess Mank (and I certainly do) in the context of Fincher's entire oeuvre. I should preface this by saying that I approached this film with as open a mind as possible before seeing it and tried as much as possible to suppress my exaggerated expectations and be as soberly objective as possible. I'll start with the best that Mank has to offer – the period styling and precise image work is almost orgiastic in some passages, and the conversational duel at the birthday party of Louis B. Mayer is Fincher fantastic. Gary Oldman is also excellent in the main role, and Fincher has extracted the maximum acting out of Amanda Seyfried. The list of positives ends there, because the final impression of Mank most resembles a perfectly stripped-down stylistic exercise. In fact, Gary Oldman's striking performance and all the visual pageantry only obscure the narrative emptiness of the entire film, steering this Fincher's dream project into some kind of arthouse waters for a "chosen and spiritually superior audience" who will gush over the period atmosphere of classic Hollywood and glorify the ubiquitous academic boredom. Yes, this is indeed a film by the same filmmaker responsible for Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, and Gone Girl. If Fincher continues in a similar vein in the years to come, then good help us all. And the saddest part is that Fincher would have done 100x better to produce another series of Mindhunter instead of the whole famed Man. The first project from David Fincher where we didn't encounter my favorite filmmaker. [55%] (07.12.2020)

Fincher is a genius. Although I consider Citizen Kane to be a truly extraordinary and timeless work, I really did not think of myself as the target audience for a movie about 1930s Hollywood, I thought the whole thing would just go right over my head. Instead, I was served a movie which was simply amazing, I could not find any fault with it. In terms of directing, it goes beyond anything made in the last couple of years. I'm no film snob or an art film lover, quite the contrary, I'm into mainstream movies, but Mank, just like the recent Roma, is an absolute treat. (16.08.2022)