When Gary Oldman staggers onto an MGM film set as hungover screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz in Mank and Louis B. Mayer asks who he is, Irving Thalberg replies dismissively, "Just a writer." David Fincher's forensic probe into the turbulent weeks Mankiewicz spent finishing his Citizen Kane script for Orson Welles aims to correct that slight and restore the reputation of an often overlooked architect of that 1941 classic, casting a jaundiced eye over 1930s Hollywood just as the Screen Writers Guild was in its infancy.
Steeped in the inspirations behind Welles' debut film and the bold stylistic tropes that made it such a landmark, the Netflix feature is a cinephile's dream.
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