Mank Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

6. It's A Fascinating Look At Hollywood & Politics

What Mank does better than anything else, even in its trickier moments, is offer a unique window into the intermingling worlds of Hollywood and politics.

As much as the film is focused on Mankiewicz attempting to complete the Kane screenplay amid major personal strife, a large chunk of the story is also devoted to the inside baseball studio politicking of the era, especially the single-minded, penny-pinching efforts of MGM's sleazeball co-founder Louis B. Mayer (an excellent Arliss Howard).

A surprising amount of the film also covers 1934's California Gubernatorial battle between Democrat Upton Sinclair (Bill Nye) and Republican incumbent Frank Merriam, which sees Hollywood exert its own unique influence on the election through fabricated propaganda "news reels" intended to keep Merriam in power.

The result is a mutli-faceted film albeit one that again proves more challenging than your average Fincher joint, and if you feel like you didn't grasp every single facet of its nuance the first time around, you shouldn't feel bad about it.