 Guess how many times I'm gonna make you do that scene, Gary Oldman? Not even I know how many times before we perfect this mirror! Ooh! That's a hot mug, guys! Hey guys, this is my review for Mank. The David Fincher film that I've been waiting quite a long goddamn time for because the last movie he made was Gone Girl, and that was 2012. Remember when we all thought that was gonna be the end of the world, dear? This is a movie that has had a lot of people waiting. This is the film that essentially put Minehunter into the ground. This is the movie that prevented David Fincher from doing World War Z II, but honestly, he did a better choice with making this movie. This is the movie that has left us from any David Fincher film aside from Minehunter for the last eight years. So was it worth the wait? This is a movie that obviously meant a lot to Fincher. This was the script that his father had wrote and passed before it ever got approved by a film. First off, if you haven't seen Citizen Kane or if you know almost nothing about Orson Welles, you're gonna need to watch the movie before you watch this one because you're gonna be out to lunch as this is a lot about how that film was created and how Mankowitz wrote the script for it during one of his darkest times while working for Orson Welles, who at the time, 24 years old, basically had RKO pictures by the balls to make whatever he wanted. Orson Welles is an oddity. Orson Welles was a enigma in the film industry at the time. This guy had creative pizzazz, he had charisma, he had an ego that would ripple and crash and destroy and build a brand new Hollywood. And he wasn't given really the proper credit for it until after he died. But this movie isn't really about Orson Welles, even though the guy who they got to play him, damn dead fucking on. From the look to how he acts to his voice, holy shit, the voice. Which a little side note about this movie, the lengths and the attention to detail of how they made this movie look, sound and feel like an authentic 30s film should be commended. The sound work in this film is exceptional. I hope it's on the Oscar table for sound editing and mixing. It should definitely be there. The cinematography, well not exactly as robust as I would think it would be. This actually is the cinematographer for a majority of the Mindhunter episode, so that's maybe why he's not as big for big motion picture films as this. But there's a lot of little details that they do, whether it be the CGI backgrounds, whether it be how they are moving through sets, the fact that they will turn lights off in the set before they actually fade to black, and obviously the little burn marks in the corners before every scene. This is one of the best parts of the movie. The other part is essentially pausing it every 20 minutes or so to look up the people who they're talking about. It was really cool to look up about MGM and their head guy, Mare, and the shady shit he did. It was cool to look at all the other actors and directors that Mankowicz met with and got to work with and the pictures that they worked on. It was cool to look up all of this stuff because sometimes the film is just guys talking. Now obviously that's what Finch Who does and that's what the movie's about. It's about this period of time of Mankowicz's life and his rise to this point. This deluded drunk version of himself that really can't push past being a clown. Gary Oldman's performance in this film is commendable. I will admit though that I got a little bit weirded out when he was supposed to be playing a 30 year old version of his character and he is older now than Mankowicz was when he died. I understand that you want to use Gary Oldman when you can and maybe it was a little awkward to use a younger actor as his younger self but I really didn't get the casting choice in this particular moment because Oldman never looks like he's 30 or even 40. He looks like a fat 60 year old throughout the whole damn movie and while I did say this movie is about characters talking there are certain scenes particularly any scene that has Charles dance in it and it's not because Charles dance is in it, it's what happens around him that you will hold your breath and you will just sit there and watch and be completely riveted in what they're talking about. Even though it doesn't have much to do with a plot it's about the characters themselves. It is about their views of each other in society. It's about their views of each other in the Hollywood apparatus. It's also about how much Hollywood had a hand in certain elements in political and social economics of the world even though they thought it was a joke themselves. Some people were harshly, harshly affected by it because it does talk about the depression as well and the effects that Hollywood as I said had on politics. I enjoy Mank for a history lesson more like historical fiction but it still makes you want to look up all of these old things. It gives you a renewed fascination in the old black and white era the dawn of the new Hollywood moving from the silent pictures. It doesn't hold enough though to make me want to watch it a second time for the plot itself. If I were to re-watch this film it would be for the purpose of looking up these old things again and kind of going on a little bit of my own little history lesson because for a movie that we've been waiting eight years for I don't know it's just not as gang busting as I thought it would be. I enjoyed the attention to detail in the dialogue. I like that a lot of it is actually historically accurate in terms of what we're talking about. Everyone's got fantastic writing. It's very true to the period in which it is displaying. It just doesn't hold me. It is still a great venture film. It's just not one of my favorites. It's definitely not going to be up there with my tops and I really think this movie will also be passed over to the Oscars and the awards just like the Irishman was and the Irishman's problem was that it was too long. Manx is that it just doesn't give you that hook that you need to really pull you in. It's everything around it that is pulling you in but not the actual subject itself. So in the end I'm going to give Manx a 5 out of 7. I think it's a commendable movie technical wise, historic wise, just interest level wise itself but the story on its own is not as riveting as I would have hoped it would have been considering just how long and how precious this story was to Fincher. Anyways guys that's all from me. I hope you enjoyed this review. If you did leave a like and if you're interested in more subscribe otherwise see you guys next time. Thanks for watching the video. My name is Knitz and you might remember me from the animated cult classic TV show Undergrads. It's been a while but I'm happy to say the click is finally getting back together in an all new movie thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign but we are still asking for your support. To see any and all updates about the upcoming Undergrads movie be sure to check out and like the Bring Back Undergrads Facebook page and with any luck we'll see you guys soon.