'Mank' Review

It's been quite a few months since I've written and shared a review. In that time, I started a new job and now have a little less free time on my hands for writing. However, I'd like to get back on track soon and felt reviewing David Fincher's latest film from Netflix would be a fine place to start. In the coming weeks, I'll share Reel Recaps for everything I watched before Mank that I haven't already reviewed this year, as well as standalone reviews for other recent releases. I'd like to be caught up by New Year's Eve, so I can piece together a proper Top 10 list celebrating my favorite films of the year as usual. This year, the number of 2020 movies I've seen is noticeably lacking due to movie theaters' current state. However, there are plenty of films that debuted on streaming platforms I'd like to cram in. 

'Mank' Review

Nominated For: Best Picture, Best Director; David Fincher, Best Actor; Gary Oldman, Best Supporting Actress; Amanda Seyfried, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Sound, and Best Original Score.

Won: Best Cinematography and Best Production Design.

Synopsis: A scathing social critique of 1930s Hollywood through the eyes of alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.

Runtime: 131 minutes

MPAA Rating: R (for some language)

Who should see it? Film fans enamored with early Hollywood and the real-life influences on Citizen Kane.

It has been nearly eighty years since the release of Citizen Kane, and the film is still held in high regard as one of the greatest motion pictures ever made for how it revolutionized cinema. With his eleventh feature, acclaimed filmmaker David Fincher realized his late father Jack Fincher's screenplay to shed new light on the mastermind behind said masterpiece. That said, it's important to note that Mank isn't strictly about the making of Citizen Kane, ala The Disaster Artist. Mank revolves around Herman J. Mankiewicz as he reflects on touchstone moments throughout his career, which now pervade his script. Before watching Mank, I suggest doing a little cursory research.

In preparation for Mank, I covered some glaring blindspots by finally watching the coveted Citizen Kane in addition to much of Fincher's filmography. While seeing Citizen Kane beforehand isn't essential to grasp Mank's story, it certainly enhanced my viewing experience. Plus, it never hurts to indulge in experiencing a classic for the first time! But one thing missing from my repertoire was a full understanding of 1930s Hollywood. Again, this isn't required by any means. But you'll get more out of Mank if you're more accustomed to the politics and key players of the period. Individuals worth googling include William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, Louis B. Mayer, Irving G. Thalberg, Upton Sinclair, and Orson Welles. Fincher offers enough subtext for viewers to piece things together and get the big picture, but I'm sure I'll takeaway more when I revisit Mank now that I possess more than a passing familiarity with these names.  

On a technical level, Mank is astounding. Considered to be an obsessive perfectionist by many, Fincher transports audiences to yesteryear by replicating the look and sound of early motion pictures, complete with all the era's trademark quirks. Mank is littered with cue marks and slow fades, filmed in black and white, and boasts the soundscape of an old talkie. A few visual effects involving animals don't hold up to the scrutiny of today's standards, but they're brief. Of course, I must give credit where it's due to the crew members who successfully recreated the rough-around-the-edges glamour of early Hollywood pictures. A job well done by Fincher's longtime sound designer and supervisor Ren Klyce, cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, the costumers, production designers, and set decorators. And I couldn't dare forget the spellbinding score from the Oscar-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. 

While Mank is not solely about the making of Citizen Kane, the two films will forever be intertwined. It's befitting that a movie about the screenwriter of Citizen Kane would employ a similar story structure to examine its protagonist. As reporter Jerry Thompson relentlessly sought to unravel the significance of Kane's final words, Jack Fincher is equally fascinated in determining how a life of alcoholism and rocky Hollywood career lead a washed-up screenwriter to pen his magnum opus. Where Citizen Kane's flashbacks were told from the supporting cast's point-of-view to offer a comprehensive look at Kane's life, flashbacks in Mank do the opposite. Mankiewicz's point-of-view fills in the dimension and context of those same supporting characters' real-life inspiration.  It's worth remembering that Mankiewicz is meant to be an unreliable narrator since he's an alcoholic, so the depictions of these key figures are heavily skewed.

In the titular role, Gary Oldman is incredible as Herman Mankiewicz. Oldman's proven himself time-and-time again to be a chameleon onscreen, and this outing is no exception. Acting intoxicated is a slippery slope, but Oldman managed to do so in a way that didn't come off as cartoonish. Oldman's depiction of a drunk is imbued with enough nuances for viewers to sense the broken soul and crisis of conscience bubbling beneath the surface. Opposite Oldman, Amanda Seyfried and Lily Collins are delightful as the spirited actress Marion Davies and Mank's kind secretary Rita Alexander. The two share an endearing friendship with Mank, which livened the proceedings and lent the film its heart. 

 

Chief among the supporting cast, Charles Dance is as impeccable as ever. Dance portrays William Randolph-Hurst as snide, gaudy, and pretentious. There's no mincing of words, as Game of Thrones fans are well aware of Dance's formidable screen presence. Other noteworthy performances include Tom Burke as Orson Welles and Tom Pelphrey as Herman's brother, Joseph Mankiewicz. The remainder of the cast is uniformly good. But I must say I was taken aback to discover the actor cast as Upton Sinclair as I watched the film (I think it's best left a surprise, so I'll leave it at that).

In the wake of COVID-19, time's are a-changing, and so is film distribution. It's almost ironic that a film so indebted to traditional filmmaking techniques is debuting on a streamer. Nevertheless, Netflix offers a degree of creative freedom almost unheard of nowadays, so it's understandable Fincher would be enticed to partner with the studio (especially after successful collaborations such as Mindhunter and House of Cards). So no, Mank is not jank, rank, and it certainly doesn't stank. Fincher's latest feature harkens back to the culture of Hollywood's Golden Age not with dreamy eyes but disdainful scrutiny. Mank can best be described as an old fashioned motion picture that's actually kind of dank (cool).

Film Assessment: A-

Retrospective Review: 'Alien 3'

Today I'm wading the troubled waters of reviewing Alien 3. I will be including some slight spoilers, so you've been forewarned. If you're curious what else I have in store, you can expect a Retrospective Review of Alien: Resurrection, a Throwback Thursday Review of Prometheus, and a review on Alien: Covenant all to be uploaded this week. 

'Alien 3' Review

Nominated For: Best Visual Effects.

Ellen Ripley is once again the sole survivor of this story when a piece of her ship carrying the cryo-sleep chambers mysteriously crash lands on Fiorina 161, a desolate planet housing a maximum security prison. There she encounters pious prisoners and their skeptical sentries, whom she must convince to trust in her regarding the potential alien contagion. It's fairly well known that Alien 3 had an especially troubled production process. The fact it would have to follow up sci-fi classics Alien and Aliens was a daunting task in-of-itself, but somehow good did indeed come from Alien 3.

Thanks to the middling movie, David Fincher was enveloped into the filmmaking community after successfully supervising a series of successful music videos. Fincher has since gone on to craft a number of wellregarded works I hope to review in the near future such as Fight Club, Se7en, and The Social Network. Unfortunately, Alien 3 wasn't the feature film directorial debut Fincher or any person would imagine it to have been considering Fincher had little-to-no control over the project.

While I've reviewed other films where studios intervened on behalf of making a profit like Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, or Fantastic Four (2015), Alien 3 is different in the sense that it's difficult to trace what decisions stemmed from where. Normally I'm able to have some reasonable idea where certain ideas originated (typically from either the writer or director), but Alien 3's a different case altogether. Some information has gone public such as Sigourney Weaver bearing her Academy Award nomination for her performance in Aliens as creative leverage and early drafts of alternate versions of the project but no real explanation behind everything that happened. It's probably most simply explained by the fact the studio interfered and that's that. Therefore, I'll be dissecting pieces of the film but won't really be able to properly credit any specific individual(s) so this review may be a little jumbled and hard to follow.

Alien 3's script is credited to David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson in the screenplay division with a story supposedly molded by Vincent Ward. It's impossible to tell how much control these individuals really had over the script though. To briefly take a detour from all the behind the scenes drama, I've got to admit that there are some interesting ideas buried underneath the script. The idea that an alien's chemistry changes based off the organism it's birthed from opens the door to infinitesimal possibilities (ie. when the alien emerges from the dog/ox depending on what version you watch). The sudden and immediate death/deactivation of your favorite surviving Aliens characters may boil your blood and Weaver's anti-arms insistence doesn't really make much sense considering Ripley's in a maximum security prison, but these creative choices raise the stakes and make the situation even more terrifying.

Of course somehow an alien is involved, because otherwise the title couldn't bear the Alien Anthology monicker, but it makes absolutely no sense when you sit back and think about Alien 3 as a successor to Aliens. I find it incredibly impossible to believe that Ripley wouldn't have thoroughly examined the ship for any semblance of alien life after defeating the alien queen and going back into cryo-sleep. Also, the characters in Alien 3 are mainly morose and sink into the solemn setting. I legitimately can't remember or really distinguish any of the characters other than Ripley, Dillon, and Clemens and I watched Alien 3 only last night. Alien 3 is a film devoid of joy or hope, which actually sort of works with the foreboding backdrop but doesn't allow for a particularly enjoyable or even nerve-racking experience. If you're not invested in the hollow personas running about on screen, it's difficult to latch onto the story even with Ripley at its center. Even the cinematography from Alex Thomson is bleak and unforgiving.

Elsewhere, the special effects in Alien 3 are absolutely atrocious. When the Xenomorph is prancing about the prison, the puppet never meshes in with his corresponding background due to poor green-screen work and it actually looks worse than any effect from Alien or Aliens. The practical costumed Xenomorph seems like a better alternative now, when you view how well that iteration help up in the preceding chapters. Alien 3's score composed by Elliot Goldenthal feels far removed from the story being told. The compositions could potentially stand apart from the film, but the end result is a little jarring when the two are pieced together.

The performances on the other hand are unfortunately as jumbled as the film itself. Sigourney Weaver paints Ripley in an unsettled frantic state, pursuing the Xenomorphic paranoia that would logically accompany anyone who had experienced the former film's events. I'm not sure Weaver's capable of a truly bad performance so her portrayal certainly does the film a few favors. I especially like how her arc comes full circle as she's unhinged and distressed that the one thing that's taken everything away from her is inside her. The fact the soon-to-be alien queen is the only thing keeping the Xenomorph from munching her down is one of the fascinating concepts at the surface of the film and I like how that enables a complex characterization for Weaver to work with. Charles Dance and Charles S. Dutton each offer appropriate attributes to the compassionate chief medical officer Jonathan Clemens and devout religious leader Leonard Dillon but the remaining ensemble's littered actors portraying disposable detainees. 

In conclusion, Alien 3 could have turned out far worse but is a disappointing continuation of Ripley's story due to the lack of any distinctive creative voice. Even with titillating ideas buried underneath the surface, Alien 3 found itself befoul of a parasitic relationship more dangerous than the titular beast; money hungry studio heads.

Film Assessment: C-

Throwback Thursday Review: 'Gone Girl'

This review's a little delayed because I wanted to publish my Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children review first, a film I only just watched last evening. I chose Gone Girl to be this week's Throwback Thursday review for a few reasons. One, this week's major release is The Girl on the Train which is also a book adapted into film revolving around the mysterious disappearance of a man's wife with high profile acting talent. Two, it stars Ben Affleck and the next major release he's headlining is The Accountant that will come out next week and I already reserved that Throwback Thursday slot for my Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix  review so it just seemed perfect for this week. If all goes according to plan my review of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will have just went up and other reviews you can expect in the coming weeks include my thoughts on The Girl on the Train, The Birth of a Nation, The Accountant, Keeping Up With The Joneses, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and Throwback Thursday reviews of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Jack Reacher.

'Gone Girl' Review

Nominated For: Best Supporting Actress; Rosamund Pike.

Gone Girl is David Fincher's film adaptation of Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel involving the sudden and mysterious disappearance of wife Amy Dunne and the shocking revelations surrounding her dissipation. I won't go further because the film's twists and turns are much more satisfying if you go in with a blank slate. 

Director David Fincher injects an agonizing sensation of worry throughout the film to naw at the viewer, subvert expectations, and slowly reveal a greater scheme at play. The cinematography in combination with the desaturated color palette and the unsettling harmonic score composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross set the stage perfectly for Fincher's suspenseful thrill ride. 

Gone Girl's greatest asset however is its insanely phenomenal screenplay. Maybe the reason that the screenplay is so great is that author Gillian Flynn transcribed it and there was nothing lost in translation considering he knows every nook and cranny of the world and characters he created. Flynn makes engaging spectacle out of ordinary dialogue, bizarre circumstances, and a fascinating narrative, interweaving plot threads all throughout to expertly craft a thrilling character drama. This would all be for naught though if it weren't for the exceptional ensemble. 

Ben Affleck turns in another delightful performance as Nick Dunne, communicating Nick's sensibilities, thoughts and feelings to great effect. 

Rosamund Pike stands apart from the bunch though, making an eerie elaborate presence of Amy that won't be forgotten. Other performances to note consisted of Neil Patrick Harris' unnerving Desi Collings, a former flame of Amy's, Carrie Coon's sardonic Margo Dunne, Nick's sister, and Tyler Perry's stately lawyer Tanner Bolt. 

Gone Girl is most certainly another fantastic film from David Fincher that's not only well-directed, but well-written, well-acted, and well-executed in all other departments. Gone Girl disturbing in all the right ways, with a thing or two to say in it's dissection of troubled marriages.

Film Assessment: A-