One thing moviemakers never seem to tire of is making movies about making movies, and Mank is one of the better examples of the genre. For film buffs, it's a feast of gorgeous visuals, Hollywood name-dropping and clever banter directed with panache by David Fincher; but it may not tell a straightforward enough story to grab or maintain the interest of everyone else.

Mank centers on legendary screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz -- Mank to those who know him (Gary Oldman). The story uses the six-week period in which he wrote the screenplay for Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane as a jumping off point. But it's the film's numerous flashbacks to the 1930s that fill in the blanks of Mank's life, including his career as a screenwriter for MGM, his marriage and his meeting and acquaintance with William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance) and Hearst’s mistress, Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried).

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MANK (2020)Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies.NETFLIX

It was Hearst who served as the thinly veiled inspiration for Citizen Kane’s main character, so Mankiewicz’s interactions and impressions of him are of particular interest. Yet, the movie spends more time on the struggles of Hollywood’s movie studios during the Great Depression and the propaganda movie-industry bigwigs like MGM head Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard) commissioned to ensure their candidate won California’s 1934 gubernatorial election. It’s impossible to miss the parallels to the movie business' current challenges or the ugliness of the recent election. Nonetheless, the choice to focus on this part of the story limits the movie's ability to shed a broader light on what fed the creation of Citizen Kane, still considered by many to be the greatest film of all time.

Mank's strange lack of interest in the creative process applies to scenes where the character is supposed to be writing the screenplay itself. While we’re assured the script is the best he’s ever written and the characters who read are both impressed and horrified by its take-down of Hearst, the film never describes what Mank actually wrote. As a result, a lot of this may go over the heads of viewers who’ve never seen Citizen Kane.

So despite its use of Kane to catalyze its story, Mank is mostly a character study of a brilliant but self-destructive man, and Oldman goes all in with a brilliant, flamboyant performance that still leaves room for his character’s complex thoughts and beating heart. Mank is at once the smartest person in the room and the one whose appetites are most likely to destroy him. He uses his quick wit as a shield, but his veneer often cracks when he’s drunk, leading him to become a bit too truthful to those who have power over his livelihood. While Mank isn’t always likable, his disdain and dependence on the Hollywood machine is clearly rendered. Plus, the screenplay, written by David’s late father Jack Fincher, boasts zippy rat-a-tat dialogue that seems pulled from a screwball comedy from the time period.

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However, it’s the craftsmanship of the movie that really shines. Mank evokes Citizen Kane and other movies of the '30s and '40s. In addition to being shot in gorgeous black and white, every detail references filmmaking techniques of the era, from the strangely situated backgrounds during a driving sequence to the hallucinatory images included in a party montage. The film uses screenplay headers to indicate the year and place of its many flashback and even incorporates the cue marks in the upper right-hand corner of the screen that indicate a film reel needs to be changed (famously explained and referred to as "cigarette burns" in Fincher’s Fight Club but now rarely seen due to the rise of digital projection). These elements will enthrall cinephiles, and seem to ensure Mank will be a front runner in the technical categories at next year’s Oscars.

Yet while there’s a lot to recommend Mank, it’s unlikely to appeal to everyone, and even film buffs may be disappointed in certain choices. Given its focus, the desire to see Mank and the famously cantankerous Welles (Tom Burke) come face to face hangs over the story, yet when it finally happens late in the film, the encounter is disappointingly brief. Much of Mank feels like this: bursts of brilliance that slip away too quickly. Still, Fincher once again proves his unparalleled craftsmanship and ability to juggle the moving parts of a complex story, even if that story appeals more to the head than the heart.

Directed by David Fincher, Mank stars Gary Oldman, Tom Burke, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Tuppence Middleton, Arliss Howard and Charles Dance. The film arrives in theaters in Friday, Nov. 13, and debuts on Netflix Friday, Dec. 4.

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