by John Zenoni
I'm in the process of trying to watch all the Best Picture nominees before the big Oscar production and today I had the opportunity to watch Netflix’s, ‘Mank.’ Well, in my opinion, which I am sure will be met unfavorably, ‘Mank’ stank. I'm sorry, I really tried to get into this film but I just couldn't do it. I appreciate the black-and-white aspect of it, the ‘realism’ of the old school Hollywood, the witty, fast paced dialogue (in parts) but to me it was a total snooze fest. In fairness, I've heard about Orson Welles and the famous ‘Citizen Kane’ film which many critics claim to be the top film of all time, however, I've never even seen it. Blasphemy (and ironic), I know for someone who claims to be a movie buff and critiques films. How can I critique this film then one might ask? Well I'm doing so based on its merits alone, of course. But as far as ‘Citizen Kane’, that film is so well loved that as soon as I heard that the premise of ‘Mank’ was centered around it I just knew that award mentions were bound to happen.
For those not familiar with the story, and this is an interesting one as I never knew another screenwriter was associated with ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘Mank’ is about Herman J Mankiewic, aka Mank, who assisted Orson Welles in writing the screenplay for ‘Citizen Kane’ even though he had to pretty much demand to get that credit. I had only heard of the screenplay being written by Welles and it being his masterpiece. The issue with Mank is that he's a notorious drinker and alienated many in Hollywood as a result of it. He was, in fact, an alcoholic in real life (drinking himself to death at the age of 55).
In the title role of Mank, Gary Oldman admittedly does a great job (without a doubt one of the greater actors right now in film) and I can see why he's getting the praise that he is. The climatic scene in which he interrupts the party at William Randolph Hearst’s (for those who don’t know, the basis of ‘Citizen Kane’) mansion is amazing alone. There are also some really good supporting actors, including Amanda Seyfried, who portrays real life actress (and romantic interest of Hearst) Marion Davies. The only issue I have is that Seyfried is only in the film a short time overall, in my opinion, and yet she's snagged a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Somewhat questionable in my opinion but she does a good job, nonetheless.
Anyway, this one is obviously not going to be my pick for the big award on Oscar night based on this review. Seen it and don’t need to see it again! If anyone has a love or different insight into this film, I'm all ears!
No comments:
Post a Comment