Mank - The Parable of the Organ Grinder's Monkey 2.5/5

Citizen Kane contains a fascinating backstory. How many groundbreaking movies have you watched that were made by a twenty-four-year-old who had never been to Hollywood before? Had never acted in front of a camera? Never directed or had experience with cinematography? This is the star, director, cinematographer, and (as we learn in MANK) co-writer Orson Welles. Young as college graduate, he pulled off what many consider to be the greatest film of all time. 

So little of Mank actually has to do with the origin of Welles’ now infamous film. The story of MANK focuses on not the genius of Welles but the motivation of the man behind the script: Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) aka “MANK.” The story is centered on how Mank came to deliver the script for Citizen Kane. 

What Mank does so well is capture a mood. It gives you a vibe through Cinematography, sound, and performance. Director David Fincher and cinematographer Eric Messershmidt do a masterful job of capturing the story and evoking great performances out of the entire cast. This thing looks and sounds like it was made in the 1940s. It’s a real treat to watch. 

Plot wise, Mank focused on a parable called the Organ Grinder’s Monkey. In this parable you have a performer (the monkey), who performs under the watchful and powerful Organ Grinder in order to bring in money. Mank is all about the monkey breaking free from this powerful, greedy Organ Grinder. Whereas Fincher’s movies usually have a strong urgency (Seven, Social Network) Mank lacks urgency. It’s a very slow burn, with a lot of meandering. It contains some great scenes (Mank’s last monologue) in between a bunch of scenes that slowly unfold. In that way it plays a lot like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It’s a lot of Hollywood banter, movie execs and actors talking business. Interesting how these old time Hollywood films tend to take that approach. This makes the plot move at a slow pace and it never quite feels like there’s obstacles or antagonistic forces at work other than a greedy exec or two. It’s more of a case study, if anything. 

In the end, I love that Fincher wanted to make a movie that honored his father Jack Fincher. That’s a touching tribute and one that will always carry value for him for the rest of his life.