“Mank” is a change of pace for director David Fincher — instead of exploring the world of startup backstabbing (“The Social Network”), political backstabbing (“House of Cards”) or actual stabbings (“Seven,” “Zodiac,” “Gone Girl,” “Mindhunter” etc.), Fincher takes us back to ’30s and ’40s Hollywood.
Working from a script by Fincher’s late father Jack, the movie is shot and edited to pay homage to the classic studio films of that era — especially “Citizen Kane,” whose co-writer Herman Mankiewicz (played by Gary Oldman) is the “Mank” of the film’s title.
The story jumps back-and-forth in time, showing how Mank became …
