1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.
Cinematography
Shot like 1941 never ended—scratches, cigarette burns, all.
Score
Trent Reznor's jazz funeral for the studio system.
Acting
Oldman stumbles through genius like it's a Tuesday.
Director
David Fincher
Gary Oldman
Herman Mankiewicz
Amanda Seyfried
Marion Davies
Lily Collins
Rita Alexander
Arliss Howard
Louis B. Mayer
Tom Pelphrey
Joseph Mankiewicz
Sam Troughton
John Houseman
Ferdinand Kingsley
Irving Thalberg
Tuppence Middleton
Sara Mankiewicz
Tom Burke
Orson Welles
Joseph Cross
Charles Lederer
Jamie McShane
Shelly Metcalf
Toby Leonard Moore
David O. Selznick
Monika Gossmann
Fräulein Frieda
Charles Dance
William Randolph Hearst
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Fincher's father Jack wrote the screenplay in the 1990s; it sat unproduced for 20 years until Netflix funded his exacting vision.
The film's central argument—that Mankiewicz alone wrote Kane—directly contradicts Pauline Kael's disputed 'Raising Kane' essay, making the movie itself a act of critical revenge.
US
