admittedly there is some execrable dialogue in this in short bursts, but more often than not it is pretty sharp. I'm only half way through - but enjoying it. Even Gary Old-man is pretty good value.
― calzino, Monday, 7 December 2020 00:56 (three years ago) link
"Mank" is not an interesting enough personage, but David Fincher does this sort of t hing well.
It's meh.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 December 2020 01:01 (three years ago) link
(xpost) Here is a dime, Mr. Hart--call your mother and tell her there's seeeeriiiiouuus doubt about you becoming a lawyer.
― clemenza, Monday, 7 December 2020 01:09 (three years ago) link
welles scholar joseph mcbride has a pretty comprehensive response to the film’s historical claims here:
https://www.wellesnet.com/mank-welles-mcbride/
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 7 December 2020 02:32 (three years ago) link
Saw that
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 7 December 2020 02:34 (three years ago) link
it’s funny (well, not funny funny but yknow, funny) that the subject still gets discussed by Wellesheads & Mankheads at the teetering-on -pistols-at-dawn level of discourse even now
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 7 December 2020 03:13 (three years ago) link
has mcbride ever heard this do you thinkhttps://genius.com/Orson-welles-frozen-peas-annotated
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 7 December 2020 05:59 (three years ago) link
in honor of Morbs I am never going to watch this
― flappy bird, Monday, 7 December 2020 06:16 (three years ago) link
Ha! Well done.
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 7 December 2020 06:27 (three years ago) link
he knew i had terrible taste i have no regrets but i miss him like crazy
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 7 December 2020 06:41 (three years ago) link
this was so dull I turned it off after 20 minutes
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Monday, 7 December 2020 07:55 (three years ago) link
"has mcbride ever heard this do you think"
this makes me want to see a Mank where Danny McBride plays Mank and yeah I guess Jody Hill or David Gordon Green directs too
― charlie brown from outta town (GM), Monday, 7 December 2020 08:25 (three years ago) link
This is a fascinating interview w Ren Klyce the sound designer on Mank (who’s worked on most/almost all of Fincher’s major movies) The minutaie layed out here is incredible - and lol at how much of the story is Fincher asking for the moon & then getting annoyed at how long it takes to achieve his wild asks https://theplaylist.net/mank-sound-design-ren-kylce-interview-20201207/
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 00:40 (three years ago) link
While never dull, Mank mistakenly gets too ambitious; it's the most unwieldy picture of Fincher's career. I'd have wanted a movie about his support for Upton Sinclair.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 00:49 (three years ago) link
Good details about the fact/fiction of that here, by Greg Mitchell who wrote “Campaign of The Century” about Sinclair’s runThe Mank connection to Sinclair is heavily fictionalized it seems, but the studio involvement in scuttling Sinclair’s win was pretty true, if not watered down https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/movies/mank-upton-sinclair.html?smid=tw-share
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 01:00 (three years ago) link
I think Fincher maybe tried to have it be about ~too much~ and Mank the character gets a little foggy between timelines But I think Mank’s change of heart in wanting credit is the heart of the movie, and the movie writer in The System is where the richness isI’ve watched it a couple of times now & don’t believe Fincher is waging any kind of war against Welles the way wellesians make it seem. I think the thought exercise of viewing Welles & Kane through Mank’s gimlet eye makes it hard not to seem like jabs are being intentionally thrown. as Mank says in the movie (paraphrasing) he *is* capable of being serious ... about things that are funny. The movie is telling this creative undertaking through Mank’s experience of it and trying to underline that whatever Mank wrote, once it was written, was something he was proud of, and willing to stand for, which is something he had never really done, and what a seachange that is for a man who never held his own work in much high regard at all. I don’t think it’s trying to challenge any accepted facts or say that Welles did less or whatever. imo.
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 01:14 (three years ago) link
Mank sank by script that's rank
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 15:07 (three years ago) link
I would have probably like it more if I was an Old Hollywood nerd
lol all the old hollywood nerds I know HATE this movie
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 15:20 (three years ago) link
A leaden mess. Stick with a topic and develop it: the '34 gubernatorial race, carousing with Perelman, Hecht, et. al, the writing of CK.
The film can't take a "side" because it's an overloaded buffet.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 15:25 (three years ago) link
I would have much preferred another season of Mindhunter. Maybe watching this with low expectations helped and despite some of awful dialogue I found it quite enjoyable as far as Netflix productions go!
― calzino, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 15:30 (three years ago) link
I'd rank his films thusly.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 03:23 (three years ago) link
i feel like you nailed the best two; i'd switch around a bunch of stuff below them, mostly bc i'm the only huge fan of panic room and i actually really love the way he adapted gone girl
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 03:37 (three years ago) link
I remember panic room being a lot of fun
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 03:41 (three years ago) link
it’s so fun
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 03:45 (three years ago) link
I found the cast unattractive but it's been so long.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 03:48 (three years ago) link
Gone Girl and Zodiac are basically tied for me lol
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 04:41 (three years ago) link
the social network is very good
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:22 (three years ago) link
i probably need to see gone girl again but i had read the book before i saw the movie and didn't really feel like the movie added much that wasn't already in the book. i remember it being a fine adaptation but not a special movie beyond that. i'd be curious to hear more from fans of the movie about what it is that appeals to them about it as a movie. this is not a challenge, again i haven't seen the movie since it first came out.
― na (NA), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:33 (three years ago) link
I found it obvious and cloddish. No surprises except when Tyler Perry was onscreen. I wish Verhoeven had directed.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:38 (three years ago) link
i read the book first too! i thought the movie basically removed everything i found annoying about the book
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:39 (three years ago) link
i'm not sure how to counter "obvious and cloddish" but i found it visually awesome and appropriately creepy and cold
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:40 (three years ago) link
also idk the book has a binary structure right? and fincher had to make that more like an unfolding narrative and i think he did a great job of threading everything together
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:41 (three years ago) link
Not having to read Gillian Flynn’s sentences makes the film an immediate improvement
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:43 (three years ago) link
lol essentially yes
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:44 (three years ago) link
the only thing I'd want excised is the Scott McNairy character/scene
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:45 (three years ago) link
also, v good Fincher commentary track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIJXB1jfB2o
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:48 (three years ago) link
Maybe the novel (I've only read Sharp Objects) offered interior monologues or a narrator who made Pike's character less...transparent? She practically twirled a mustche. idk this played like a movie whose developments were obvious and took a long time time getting to the denouement.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:49 (three years ago) link
idk maybe knowing the twist inoculated me against noticing any mustache-twirling, pike seemed to nail the "presents a cool surface beneath which roil the thoughts of a high-key sociopath" 2 me
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 19:53 (three years ago) link
the book alternates the two main characters as (unreliable) narrators iirc
― Number None, Wednesday, 9 December 2020 23:19 (three years ago) link
That's helpful. Maybe Fincher, trying to compensate, emphasized Pike's villainy as a way of reflecting the explicitness of the text.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 23:24 (three years ago) link
well this was a crock of absolute shit
― Babby's Yed Revisited (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 15 December 2020 18:22 (three years ago) link
Be crueler.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 December 2020 18:25 (three years ago) link
Wouldn't go that far but this was too unfocused. Script needed a lot of work. I like pretty much everything Fincher's done but couldn't get into this one
― Vinnie, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 00:34 (three years ago) link
Gary Oldman's vocal tics started to grate on me too
― Vinnie, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 00:35 (three years ago) link
the performance grated for me. my main issue was that I was constantly thinking "why am I watching this?" throughout the film, which is always a bad sign. I am favourably inclined towards fincher, and the film looks fine, but I think the script just sinks this thing.
― Babby's Yed Revisited (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 16 December 2020 00:40 (three years ago) link
Bill Nye as Upton Sinclair was a nice surprise. Would watch that biopic.
― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Wednesday, 16 December 2020 01:03 (three years ago) link
also i was watching with headphones and i maybe i'm crazy but it sounded like the dialogue had an effect on it to make it sound like you're watching a movie in a theater - a very slight echo/reverb
I noticed this too! It was fairly disorienting thru my terrible tv speakers.
― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Wednesday, 16 December 2020 01:13 (three years ago) link
_also i was watching with headphones and i maybe i'm crazy but it sounded like the dialogue had an effect on it to make it sound like you're watching a movie in a theater - a very slight echo/reverb_I noticed this too! It was fairly disorienting thru my terrible tv speakers.
― circa1916, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 02:35 (three years ago) link
― circa1916, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 02:37 (three years ago) link
Was that not fairly obvious for most people?
I would imagine so. Mostly just reminded me how much better it would've been at a theater.
― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Wednesday, 16 December 2020 04:19 (three years ago) link