‘Mank’ // a movie discussion

Mank tells the story of the writer behind arguably the best movie in cinematic history, Citizen Kane. Famous for his wit, Herman Mankiewicz was one of the highest paid screenwriters of the era. His charisma earned him invites to newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst’s extravagant dinner parties, which gained him firsthand experience that he could draw upon when writing Hearts’s thinly veiled facsimile, Charles Foster Kane. Mankiewicz was a complex man with unrespectable habits and honorable values. Although he was an alcoholic and a gambler, he helped Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution and was seemingly the only one at MGM to stand against the company's deceitful propaganda that influenced California's 1934 gubernatorial race. Although Mank is more than the making of Citizen Kane, it parallels the film in its non-linear portrayal of a tortured man who stood by his values till the end. It reveals the corruption within Golden Age Hollywood and acknowledges the still present abuse of power by the highly influential through the eyes of a man whose only capacity to fight was, in his words.

J. McVay and Jacqueline Soller discuss Mank, a film directed by David Fincher and distributed by Netflix.

Mank stars Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, and Lily Collins.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Jacqueline Soller

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 12/11/20

Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media