A crumpled hero
As was the case with The Artist and La La Land, critics are calling David Fincher’s new movie a “love letter to old Hollywood”. Like those two Oscar winners, it uses gorgeous old-fashioned cinematography to take us behind the scenes of the movie business.
But this time, there’s a disconnect between the look and feel of the film. To me, this scathing Netflix-produced drama felt more like Fincher dumping Hollywood than penning it a love letter.
The Social Network director finds an unusual hero in the crumpled form of Gary Oldman’s Herman J Mankiewicz, the booze-sodden reporter who shared a screenwriting gong with Orson Welles for Citizen Kane. To Fincher, working from a script written by his late father Jack, “Mank” was an underappreciated genius who was broken on the wheel of a cynical and morally bankrupt money-making machine.
The story begins in a remote cottage in 1940, where Welles (Tom Burke) has sent Mank to write a film based on the life of media mogul William
FLASHBACK Charles Dance as Hearst
Amanda Seyfried with Gary Oldman
Randolph Hearst, who had a long affair with actress Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried).
As the writer dictates the script to his secretary (Lily Collins), flashbacks take us to MGM in the 1930s and to the San Simeon estate of Hearst (Charles Dance), where Mank loses his self-respect playing the mogul’s drunken “court jester”.
The screwball dialogue is a delight, the monochrome cinematography is gorgeous and the performances are excellent. But while the film has a firm grasp of time and place, it has neither the heart nor the narrative drive of those Oscar-winning movies about movies. It will be catnip to film buffs but fans of Ryan Gosling’s tap dancing will need to look elsewhere.
The drama feels more like dumping Hollywood than penning it a love letter
COOKERY Nadiya Bakes by Nadiya Hussain
Michael Joseph, £22
The former winner of
Great British Bake-Off presents her new cookery book, teeming with cakes, biscuits, breads, pies and savoury specials. There’s everything here from French onion and blue cheese tart to caramel crunch rocky road – all explained in easy-tofollow steps.
Cook, Eat, Repeat by Nigella Lawson
Chatto & Windus, £26
Nigella is back with a cookbook that combines recipes with anecdotes and reflections. Written in her inimitable warm and conversational style, it’s an eclectic mix, with recipes for chicken, ribs, artichoke hearts and rhubarb, among others.
The Rangoon Sisters Cookbook
by Amy and Emily Chung
Ebury Press, £20
Amy and Emily Chung are sisters, GPs and supper club hosts, drawing on their heritage to compile an accessible and utterly irresistible collection of 80 flavoursome Burmese recipes, including noodles, stir-fries, curries and stews.
Ottolenghi Flavour
by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage Ebury, £27
While the list of
Ottolenghi and
Belfrage’s essential 20 ingredients at the beginning of their new book might seem a little daunting, the results are worth it. There’s a reason this book is called Flavour – it’s because the recipes are packed with it. Ever inventive, they range from noodle salads and pastas to vegetable dishes that will show you cauliflower in a whole new light.