At this time last year, Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" became a hot topic of discussion, and eventually won more than 10 Oscar nominations, which was a glorious moment, even though it lost to "Parasite." However, this year's Netflix trump card is not as good as last year. Obviously, David Fincher and Martin Scorsese are not the directors favored by Oscars. Judging from their Oscar awards, their works are more popular. Liked by film critics. If last year's "The Irishman" maintained the old director's technical attempts to innovate and change, then this year's "Mank" is an old-fashioned work that obscures the director's true nature.
The film tells the birth process of the classic film history "Citizen Kane" . With the eyes of the legendary screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, it shows the life of the 1930s and 1940s. It also shows the Hollywood stars and the studio system. Some irony and criticism. First of all, this script written by Vinci's father is quite old-school, like the one-shot characterization of the classic Hollywood era. Unexpectedly, Vinci chose to shoot in the same old fashioned way, which inevitably made people yawn again and again. Without the dazzling audio-visual style of Vinci in the past, only the boring sound of the typewriter creates the anxiety of creation, and the neat and boring flashback design disturbs the narrative time and space, which is far inferior to the aesthetic charm of Vinci's peak period. The more it looks like a licensed craftsman .
Except for this script that is not suitable for Finch's style , the actor Gary Oldman's interpretation does not have many surprises at all. It is all the way he used to perform characters in the past, which is not seen in this cynical character. The breakthrough is particularly obvious from his record in the awards season this year. The most fascinating thing is that I try to imitate the aesthetic style of Hollywood's golden age , and the art, lighting, and set design restore a dreamy color. Choosing to use black and white images to present the look of Los Angeles during the Great Depression is an effective and refined method. The plot of the governor election in the play coincides with the situation in the US presidential election this year. The struggle between the two parties, democracy and the Republic, and the rise of candidates and voters can inevitably smell the reality of the moment. The portrayal of the idealistic side of the protagonist is more representative of the consistent positions and views of Hollywood's left-wing elites. In this era of unprecedented political divergence, it is unavoidable to make people feel embarrassed.
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