Mank – 4

A thoroughly unpleasant two hours of snark, cynicism, cigarettes and a drunken boor, with nary a witty line to be heard nor a noble man in sight. Mank’s wife and secretary, who also look alike, are the only people who exude any decency. The story is a “who-cares?,” and it goes back-and-forth with flashbacks to mask its vapidity (granted, the act of writing a screenplay is not inherently dramatic). The movie relies too much on reflected luster from Citizen Kane and Hollywood names from the ’30s, coupled with black-and-white cinematography that mimics its subject. For a good self-referential movie about Hollywood, see Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time…  David Fincher’s Mank is DOA.