Posts by Ian Mantgani

The first lady of French cinema offers a final, typically fascinating self-portrait.

Amazing Grace – first look review

Sydney Pollack’s long-lost concert doc shows the Queen of Soul at the height of her pop fame.

The Operative – first look review

Diane Kruger and Martin Freeman star in this intriguing tale of espionage in modern-day Tehran.

Watergate – first look review

Charles Ferguson’s mammoth chronicle of President Nixon’s downfall manages to be at once too detailed and too superficial.

Mr Jones – first look review

Agnieszka Holland’s biopic of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones is one of the most powerful films at this year’s Berlinale.

Fourteen – first look review

American filmmaker Dan Sallitt delivers a delicate, subtly devastating portrait of friendship and depression.

The Kindness of Strangers – first look review

This year’s Berlin Film Festival gets off to an inauspicious start care of Lone Sherfig’s fusty New York ensemble drama.

Madeline’s Madeline – first look review

Josephine Decker returns with a commanding, emotionally bracing study of teenage psychosis.

In defence of Al Pacino’s performance in Scent of a Woman

There’s something deeply entertaining and moving about his widely ridiculed lead turn.

articles In Praise Of

Going in Style

Zach Braff directs this subpar septuagenarian comedy about giving mortality the slip.

The Void

Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski’s cosmic horror-thriller fails to live up to its initial promise.

Why What Women Want is the greatest blockbuster of the 21st century

In celebration of that rare beast – a battle-of-the-sexes fantasy rom-com that netted over $400 million at the box office.

articles Dreaming Big

Unbranded

Beautifully shot vistas are all that this doc on modern cattle driving has to offer, and it isn’t enough.

Dear White People

A spiky, combative and wry look at issues of race arising on an American Ivy League university campus.

8½ (1963)