A landmark of American cinema: formally daring, psychologically rich, and still astonishing in how it uses sound, space, and structure to build a portrait of ambition and loneliness. Even if its reputation precedes it, the film earns that status with craft that remains vivid and influential.
Citizen Kane
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Mystery · Drama
Thu · 1h 59m
Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore
Overview
Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.
Director
Orson Welles
Cast
Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore
Curator Review
Verdict
A landmark of American cinema: formally daring, psychologically rich, and still astonishing in how it uses sound, space, and structure to build a portrait of ambition and loneliness. Even if its reputation precedes it, the film earns that status with craft that remains vivid and influential.
Best for
Viewers interested in film history and cinematic innovation
Fans of psychologically driven character studies
People who enjoy mystery structures and fractured storytelling
Audiences drawn to stories about power, wealth, and isolation
Skip if
You want fast pacing and constant plot movement
You prefer straightforward, emotionally direct storytelling
You are impatient with older films or stylized performances
You dislike stories that are more about character and theme than action
Overview
Citizen Kane is less a conventional biography than a puzzle box about memory, power, and the cost of becoming untouchable. It turns a newspaper empire, a giant mansion, and a single childhood wound into a study of how people build identities out of longing and control.
Worth noting
What still feels remarkable is how alive the filmmaking is. The deep focus compositions, low angles, layered sound, and fluid transitions make every scene feel designed to reveal both spectacle and emptiness at once. The movie’s famous structure also gives it a restless, investigative energy that keeps the character at a distance even as it gets closer to his emotional truth.
Bottom line
Its reputation can make it feel like homework, but the film is much stranger and more melancholy than a museum piece. It is a grand, ironic tragedy about success that cannot fill the void underneath it, and that emotional core is what keeps it resonant beyond its technical legend.
Top Letterboxd reviews
maria (5★) · 14635 likes
i mean... it wasn't as good as shrek 2 (2004) but it was ok
Nakul (5★) · 7596 likes
One might call it the Citizen Kane of movies.
Lucy (2★) · 7172 likes
have you guys ever heard of this movie? citizen kane? directed by orson welles? ever heard of it? citizen kane? probably not, it's pretty indie
cinéfila... 🕯️ · 5058 likes
watching an almost universally loved work of art and not connecting with it in any way whatsoever has got to be one of my least favorite film-related experiences
brendan o'hare (5★) · 4535 likes
What a terrible name for a sled
Themes
ambition, power, wealth, loneliness, memory, identity, loss of innocence, media and influence
Topics
classic Hollywood, film noir influence, psychological drama, nonlinear narrative, media satire, wealth and decadence, lonely antihero, visual innovation, tragic ambition, mystery