10 Films To Get You In The Mood For David Fincher's Mank
It's been six years since David Fincher's last full-length feature. Are you ready?
David Fincher's long awaited next feature Mank (2020) is finally set to hit Netflix sometime before the end of the year, with the trailer having dropped this week. Telling the tale of the acerbically witty and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his time co-writing Citizen Kane - to many the greatest film ever released - Mank is set to be another slick, technically accomplished, and compelling drama of the sort you should expect from Fincher.
Six years since Fincher's last outing with Gone Girl, the hype for his next feature is more than justified. Set for a limited theatrical run in November before dropping on Netflix on December 4, there's only a couple of months left to get yourself into the right frame of mind for some top tier cinema, and there's no better way to do so than exploring some excellent pictures.
A number of these suggestions are what you could call 'Hollywood films,' in the sense that they are films about Hollywood, whilst others key in on Mank's themes, and still others are the same sort of examinations of one person in a particular time and place just as Mank is. Here are ten films to get you in the mood for this latest period piece.
10. Capote
Perhaps the oddest mention on this list, Capote deserves a place here for preparing you not to find the writer protagonist of Mank an especially likeable man. This much is assuredly true of the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman's truly spellbinding turn as Truman Capote in a film unafraid to dwell on Capote's most unlikable traits, whilst telling a focused, compelling narrative.
Charting the journey Capote undertakes in writing his nonfiction masterpiece In Cold Blood, which itself concerns the execution of a Kansas family by two criminals, the film is an exquisite period piece and the sort of slow paced, atmospheric drama the likes of which Fincher makes - even though this is not a Fincher picture.
The standout aspect of Capote, however, is Philip Seymour Hoffman's frankly eery turn as the troubled writer, managing somehow to capture every nuance of voice and gesture without ever seeming to be a mere caricature or impression.
The film is worth watching for Hoffman and Hoffman alone, but there's a lot more to take away from this quality drama.