FANTASTIC MR. FINCHER 

Saw David Fincher's Mank last night and it's excellent.  Herman Mankiewicz (brilliantly played by Gary O.) is on an impossible deadline to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane, and the inspiration for the title role, media baron William Randolph Hearst, is unlikely to be amused.  

Hearst is portrayed – with subtle understatement – by Charles Dance and Amanda Seyfried is his paramour, the actress Marion Davies.  Yes, ‘paramour’ is the right word, for this is the 1930’s.

Fincher lovingly crafts the Golden Age of Hollywood in high contrast black & white, in a non-linear storyline reminiscent of Citizen Kane itself.  Still, it's not everybody’s cup of tea. The viewer has to know the tinsel town of yesteryear to provide context.  Through this celluloid world stride the likes of Orson Welles, Louis B. Meyer, David Selznik and Irving Thalberg.

 In fact, the film reminds me of David Niven’s memoir, The Moon’s A Balloon, with that judicious mix of desperate ambition, paranoia and absurdity that was his Hollywood.

In that vein, Mank is Fincher’s portrait of the pre-war movie world and its denizens, and it’s a tribute to the director’s versatility – after all, he’s brought us films as diverse as Seven, Fight Club, Benjamin Button and The Social Network.

Mank is on Netflix, you could give it a try.