One Paragraph Movie Review: Citizen Kane

Eighty-first film: Citizen Kane, a movie firmly on most people’s well-I-suppose-I-really-should-watch-it list. After very careful analysis, I’ve figured out why everyone says the cinematography is incredible, and it’s primarily because the cinematography is incredible. What I didn’t hear — or didn’t listen to — anyone say is that this is a pretty robustly depressing movie, and I further understand that symbolic or not, sleds must have a lot more to them than I can properly appreciate. There are a thousand lessons to learn about life, two or three easy parallels with current-day power-moguls to make, and probably infinite bits and pieces that are still shown to film students every year as excellent examples of how to do things. This movie is bloody marvellous to look at, and not bad to watch, even with a 77-year-old spoiler ruining the ending for me. Good, with backlighting. Three and three-quarter unconvincing old man make-up and wig jobs out of five.