As far as vanity projects (this was a script that Fincher’s dad had tried to make for a long time and could never find backing for) this wasn’t terrible, but it does too little with its 130min runtime, possibly because Fincher seems more interested in certain aspects of Mankiewicz’ saga than others. The stuff about Upton Sinclair’s campaign clearly is where the film is at its most incisive, and as someone who knew very little about this, kinda made me wish the movie had focused on that aspect more instead of the somewhat turgid scenes showing the Creative Process of drunk Mank fighting with himself and Welles. The movie clearly takes Pauline Kael’s infamous take about Welles having little to do with the Citizen Kane screenplay to heart, but in the process makes him into a caricature that kills off most of the scenes he’s in. On the other hand Charles Dance is woefully underused as Hearst, even though his confrontations with Mank are clearly shown as the tinder that led to the greatness of Citizen Kane.

It ends up a weird product that will have little appeal to anyone not steeped in classic Tinseltown, while providing little insight to those that are. Sure, the acting works (though I don’t totally buy Oldman as a 45 year old, especially when his brother, who was just 12 years younger, show up), the score is fantastic and the cinematography sparkles. And this being a Fincher movie the directing is sharp and no-nonsense. But overall it’s tough to shake the feeling that this is yet another Netflix production, made more out of an abundance of funding than creative impulse