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They do talk about payola, and how initially if someone gave a bad review that the advertisers would go elsewhere. It also talks about the studios dishing out big bucks to the critics with 1st class private flying, nice hotels, etc., and it's a good investment, since one critic could bring in a lot of people who would never see it otherwise. After I was finished with the documentary and would google a few names, with keywords similar to "payola", probably used "controversy", to see all of the accusations of quid pro quo. The Paulettes vs. the Crowtheys, recruiting young, new critics to their club to solidify their positions/theories. I also read about how some would give awful movies good reviews, some who made cameos in the movie, which is too obvious, so Harry Knowles gave it a bad review. I bet critics "trade" to avoid suspicion. They probably create a lot of the fake "controversy" just to get more attention. If everyone is saying how "X" is the greatest movie ever, someone who has little attention can make a splash by criticizing it. Speaking of, I didn't care about Kael's "Raising Kane". Too much hearsay, and it appeared she was on Mank's side, so I'll avoid the movie, too. I can't tell you many times I've heard Ben Mank on TCM talk about "My family" "My grandfather who wrote Citizen Kane".
Haven't read Kael's Raising Kane, but I'd likely agree with your criticism if her position is that Mank --not Welles--wrote the screenplay. Welles certainly had his defects, but not writing Citizen Kane was not one of them...
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