Mank

Gary Oldman who stars as the title role, Herman J. "Mank" Mankiewicz

Mank was officially announced in July 2019, when David Fincher said he would direct the film, with Gary Oldman set to star. The screenplay was written by Fincher's father, Jack Fincher, prior to his death in 2003. It was originally going to be Fincher's follow-up to The Game (1997) with Kevin Spacey and Jodie Foster set to star but never came to fruition due to Fincher's insistence on shooting in black-and-white.[4][8] Additional casting was announced in October, with Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Tuppence Middleton, Arliss Howard, and Charles Dance among the new cast added.[9]

Fincher reunites with much of his usual filmmaking team, including production designer Donald Graham Burt, editor Kirk Baxter, and composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, using only period-authentic instruments. Fincher opted for cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, with whom he worked on his Netflix series Mindhunter.[10][11][12]

The 120-page draft of the initial script revealed that Jack Fincher closely followed a claim voiced by Pauline Kael in her 1971 New Yorker article Raising Kane that Welles did not deserve screenwriting credit.[13] The article angered many critics, including Welles's friend and fellow filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich who rebutted Kael's claims point by point in "The Kane Mutiny", an October 1972 article for Esquire.[14] Her argument was discredited by several film scholars through the years, including Robert L. Carringer in his study of "The Scripts of Citizen Kane."[15] Mank producer Eric Roth reportedly polished the script prior to filming,[16] with David Fincher saying he felt early drafts were too anti-Welles.[17] When asked about the controversy surrounding authorship, Fincher stated that his movie does not aim to settle the issue: "It was not my interest to make a movie about a posthumous credit arbitration. I was interested in making a movie about a man who agreed not to take any credit. And who then changed his mind. That was interesting to me."[18]

David Fincher, director of Mank.

Filming began on November 1, 2019, in Los Angeles.[19] It also took place in Victorville, California, and wrapped on February 4, 2020.[20] The film was shot in black and white on Fincher's preferred RED digital camera, and referenced the aesthetics of Citizen Kane cinematographer Gregg Toland.[21] Dance stated that a scene involving a drunken Mankiewicz took over 100 takes,[22] while Seyfried said that one of her scenes took over a week and 200 takes to shoot.[23] She stated, "It does feel like Groundhog Day, in a way, but that's how [Fincher] captures things that most people don't."[22] The moonlight stroll between Mankiewicz and Davies was filmed at Huntington Gardens and a Pasadena mansion during the day, although it takes place at night. This was done using the old "day for night" technique. Shooting it during the day was necessary for the lighting Messerschmidt needed for the scene.[21]

For designing the costumes, costume designer Trish Summerville and production designer Donald Graham Burt used the noir and monochromatic filters on their iPhones to see how they would look in black and white. Because the film was shot in black and white and not converted afterwards, it meant Summerville had to pick colors that would pop. She looked at photos from 1930s Hollywood to see what was worn at the time.[24]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 313 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Sharply written and brilliantly performed, Mank peers behind the scenes of Citizen Kane to tell an old Hollywood story that could end up being a classic in its own right."[33] According to Metacritic, which compiled 52 reviews and calculated a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, the film received "generally favorable reviews".[34]

Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave the film a "B+" and wrote: "However much credit Mankiewicz deserves for Kane, Fincher's remarkable movie makes a compelling argument for appreciating the prescience behind its conception. His life had a rough ending, but the movie about it gives him one last bitter laugh."[35] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Justin Chang said, "Mank demands your surrender, but also your heightened attention. It's a pleasurably discombobulating experience, sometimes playing like mordant drawing-room comedy and sometimes flirting with expressionist nightmare, as when Welles' dark silhouette looms over a bedridden Mank and his mummified leg."[36]

Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised the performances and production design, saying, "Mank is a tale of Old Hollywood that's more steeped in Old Hollywood — its glamour and sleaze, its layer-cake hierarchies, its corruption and glory — than just about any movie you've seen, and the effect is to lend it a dizzying time-machine splendor."[37] Peter Travers, reviewing the film for ABC News, wrote: "Mank is the most gorgeous piece of cinema you'll see anywhere. Brilliantly shot in black-and-white by Erik Messerschmidt, with costumes to die for by Trish Summerville and a period-authentic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that somehow isn't defeated by the retro mono sound, Mank is meant to match the look and feel of its era, as if it's eight decades ago and you just bought a ticket."[38]