Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. —Henry Fielding

17 December 2020

Mank (2020)


Mank
has a lot of problems. David Fincher's new film has some nice elements to it, but the screenplay (by Fincher's dad) doesn't really build its tension the way it needs to, and so the important scenes don't land when they should. Worse yet, the Finchers have us jumping around in time in a way that doesn't allow the film to build up to anything. We'll be in the middle of an important and emotional scene and – what do you know – we're jumping forward seven years in time for five minutes... only to jump right back to where we left off? These jumps are unmotivated and unrelated to anything thematic. They just seem to be there. The whole thing is quite frustrating. 

The tone of this movie is off, too. Mank takes a comical approach to most of its subject matter, but then it's filmed in black and white as if its going to be a serious noir picture instead of a jaunty comedy. Meanwhile Reznor and Ross's score bounces around as if this is Sullivan's Travels. It just doesn't work.

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