David Fincher -- c/d?

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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 is

I’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.


Was that not fairly obvious for most people? Sometimes my sound system craps out and I have to resort to TV speakers and the Mank sound design was very similar to what it sounds like if I accidentally have the TV speakers and system playing simultaneously. Did make me check my set-up early on.

circa1916, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 02:35 (three years ago) link

well this was a crock of absolute shit


also lol

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

three months pass...

my main issue was that I was constantly thinking "why am I watching this?" throughout the film

spot on

G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Monday, 5 April 2021 17:36 (three years ago) link

yeah, I kinda enjoyed it while watching but have thought of it 0 times since

intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Monday, 5 April 2021 18:12 (three years ago) link

three weeks pass...

very confused at the casting of 62-year-old gary oldman to play someone who was in their 30s and early 40s during the majority of the story, especially when you also have to make him look like shit.

beyond that, what everyone else said--it's a bad script.

call all destroyer, Saturday, 1 May 2021 19:24 (three years ago) link

have you seen photos of the real mank

he looked like he was 80 when he was 30
oldman was a good choice!

terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 1 May 2021 19:35 (three years ago) link

if anything oldman looks too young lol

terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 1 May 2021 19:37 (three years ago) link

i feel like if this movie were internally consistent mank would have written his hitpiece script about louis b mayer

call all destroyer, Sunday, 2 May 2021 04:04 (three years ago) link

a bad pun ignored develops into a long, slurring ad hom attack, digging up stuff from the past. Mank is an ilxor.

If you value Vox, we have an axe (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 2 May 2021 18:55 (three years ago) link


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