MANK (2020)
Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz. Cr: NETFLIX No freshman film student should be forced to watch Citizen Kane. I don’t mean this as some sort of clickbaity takedown of a beloved classic. On the contrary: Citizen Kane is probably even better than its reputation, and anyone remotely interested in movies should see it. But everyone should also be given a chance to enjoy it, and therein lies the problem. When you present a work to someone as The Best Whatever of All Time– especially when that person is a nineteen-year-old who thinks they’re hot shit, which, I assure you, every film school freshman does– you’re all but daring them to shrug with disinterest. What’s more, a big part of what...