Mank becomes an Oscar frontrunner for Netflix following first glowing reactions

Mank
(Image credit: Netflix)

Very few big-budget movies have been released in cinemas this year and you could argue that the quality of films released in 2020 has been lacking. Think again. 

Already we have seen the likes of horror movie Relic, the heart-breaking Babyteeth, and Netflix's Da 5 Bloods. Due later this year in the US are festival highlights Ammonite, Nomadland, and One Night in Miami (not to mention that, in the UK, 2020 has also included Parasite, Uncut Gems, and The Lighthouse). Potentially the biggest highlight of the year comes in December: David Fincher's Mank arrives on Netflix, and the first reactions have this in line to be an Oscar frontrunner.

"Mank is incredible on so many levels it’s overwhelming," Rian Johnson, director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Knives Out, wrote on Twitter. "I loved it, but more importantly there has never been a movie title this satisfying to say out loud. Mank. Mank mank mank. Do a newsies voice & shout it across the room & it’s the mouth version of cracking your back. A gift." Total Film's very own Jane Crowther described the movie as "magnificent". See more reactions below.

In Mank, Gary Oldman stars as notorious troubled screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the Citizen Kane screenplay for Orson Welles. The authorship of this script has been a longstanding controversy, with Welles giving himself a writing credit despite claims he didn’t contribute anything. Others argue that he did help author the screenplay.

The script for the movie was written in the 1990s by Jack Fincher, David Fincher’s father. Fincher Sr. died in 2003 before the project ever came to fruition, but Netflix greenlit the movie in early 2019. This is Fincher Jr.’s first feature since Gone Girl in 2014. In the meantime, he’s been producing prestige TV shows like House of Cards and Mindhunter.

The cast of Mank also includes Amanda Seyfried as Hollywood star Marion Davies and Charles Dance as her lover and newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst (who the titular Kane was partly based on). Lily Collins plays Mankiewicz's secretary Rita Alexander, while Tom Burke is director Orson Welles.

Mank reaches Netflix on December 4 2020. While we wait, make sure to check out the best Netflix movies available now.

Jack Shepherd
Freelance Journalist

Jack Shepherd is the former Senior Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar. Jack used to work at The Independent as a general culture writer before specializing in TV and film for the likes of GR+, Total Film, SFX, and others. You can now find Jack working as a freelance journalist and editor.

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