MANK (2020): Why David Fincher’s Story of the Drama Behind Citizen Kane is Serious Oscar Bait

Why David Fincher’s Mank is Serious Oscar Bait

David Fincher‘s Mank may be shaping up to be an Oscar night blowout at the Dolby Theater says Variety‘s Clayton Davis.

From what I can tell, Mank has all the trappings that make an Academy darling, featuring an alcoholic genius writer and drama critic, Herman Mankiewicz locked in a bitter feud with Hollywood giant Orson Welles over the artistic credits for Citizen Kane. If there’s one thing Hollywood loves more than stories about itself, it’s stories about the internal power struggles that have come to make and break artists careers and breath life into a history defined by the pursuit of fame and power.

Having attended the Netflix pre-screening Thursday night among a gaggle of critics and journalists, Davis sees the film as both deeply “personal and technically proficient,” particularly for cinephiles like himself. “On the visual merits alone [Mank] is an impressive feat, likely to emulate past successes,” which have garnered bulging fistfulls of statuettes, he says, especially considering how directly the film is tailored toward Hollywood insiders and media mavens, as the story of the struggle between the minds that created Citizen Kane “unfolds as an advanced placement course in cinema, with maybe some Cliffs Notes needed to comprehend the story.”

It’s hardly surprising that the Academy routinely favors films like Mank that let them see themselves and their industry immaculately romanticized on the silver screen. Recent Best Picture nominations and winners, which appeal directly to the nostalgia of aged Hollywood insiders have included movies like La La Land (nominated 2016), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (nominated 2019), and The Artist (won 2011).

Davis is bullish on Amanda Seyfried‘s chances of taking home an Oscar, as she “has the type of role to which AMPAS voters have typically responded positively.”  He notes that Seyfried — who plays the golden age film star, Marion Davies — faces a “seemingly thin supporting actress field so far.”

He also has nothing but praise for Gary Oldman, “who won his Oscar in 2018 for Darkest Hour [and] is just as effortless in his portrayal as Herman J. Mankiewicz as you would expect from an actor of his stature.” Though he adds that “it’s also possible, as with Robert DeNiro in The Irishman last year, he could be snubbed in the best actor category.”

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