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Ian Mantgani

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Born in Sligo, Ireland -- also the birthplace of brilliant filmmaker Neil Jordan -- Ian Waldron-Mantgani is the mixed-race son of an Indian-born doctor and Irish-born occupational therapist. He gained access to the internet in 1996 and immediately started posting movie reviews on message boards. After quotes in such publications as the Sunday Times, Ian decided it was time to create his own website. 'The UK Critic' first appeared online at the beginning of 1998, and quickly became Britain's pre-eminent centre of online criticism. On top of schoolwork, sporting activities and personal commitments, Ian reviewed every nationwide release in the year 2000, and continues to update his site weekly with every release of note. He sees the vast majority of films in his own time, with his own money. Despite the lack of monetary compensation, Ian?s reviews are heavily syndicated; he is a DVD reviewer for Apollo Guide, and has in the past served as head critic on CompuServe's UK Entertainment Forum and System Operator for Compuserve?s Empire Magazine forum. Pieces can also be found on entertainmentnutz.com, alltank.com, Reel Talk Movies, GDoggyDog?s Movie Reviews and the rec.arts.movies-reviews newsgroup. Ian makes regular contributions to Ebert?s Movie Answer Man column and provided " of the most amusing entries" to Ebert's witty book of movie cliches "The Bigger Little Movie Glossary". International awards received include four nominations for Online Film Critics Society Member of the Month, and Ian is one of the only British residents in the organisation -- serving the posts of full member, OFCS Mentor, Awards Committee member and Governing Committee member. As of September 2002, Ian has been studying a BA course in Film Studies at Sheffield Hallam University, which has the highest entry requirements of any pure film course in England.

Favorites:

Favorite film of all time: 12 Angry Men (1957)Favorite UK cinema releases of 2001: Requiem for a Dream, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Traffic, The Contender, You Can Count on Me, The Pledge, Ghost World, Girlfight, Almost Famous, Quills, Audition, Castaway, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Osmosis Jones, Thirteen Days

Location:

Liverpool, UK

Official Website:

http://www.ukcritic.com

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
The Irishman (2019) 95% 5/5 EDIT “The film is ultimately about what an indistinct mulch life can be - how little you can believe in if those closest to you are the ones you betrayed.” – The Skinny Oct 15, 2019 Full Review Joker (2019) 68% 2/5 EDIT “The sum of Joker's glib philosophy seems to be that there's a lot of dark stuff out there, and that should really make you think.” – The Skinny Oct 3, 2019 Full Review Cold Pursuit (2019) 68% 2/5 EDIT “Caught noncommittally between action and comedy, it goes from being a cheeky genre meditation to a bore, spinning its snow-capped wheels.” – The Skinny Feb 25, 2019 Full Review Varda by Agnès (2019) 98% EDIT “As Varda's physical strength diminishes, and she gives us an ending that very much feels like a goodbye, she goes out by handing us an index to her case studies in how to spread creativity into the world.” – Little White Lies Feb 19, 2019 Full Review Amazing Grace (2018) 99% EDIT “Amazing Grace restores a missing piece of cinema history. With the gestures it reveals, and the spirituality it captures, it gives us something else - an act of worship, reborn.” – Little White Lies Feb 18, 2019 Full Review Bait (2019) 100% EDIT “A creeping, original British work that feels pounded into existence by hand, or possibly belched up by the angry sea.” – Sight & Sound Feb 13, 2019 Full Review The Operative (2019) 41% EDIT “Spy movies often revolve around the question of where loyalties lie, and this one puts an intriguing spin on that prospect.” – Little White Lies Feb 13, 2019 Full Review Watergate (2018) 78% EDIT “One long - very long - run-on sentence that throws in a mass of details about the crisis but doesn't shape it in a way that makes sense of the information or gives us a reason to care.” – Little White Lies Feb 13, 2019 Full Review Mr. Jones (2019) 86% EDIT “A fiery epic paying further tribute to this forgotten figure of history, and stoking the coals of remembrance as the forces of authoritarianism are, as they say, back in the news.” – Little White Lies Feb 11, 2019 Full Review Fourteen (2019) 98% EDIT “This is a wonderful, subtly devastating film from a voice in American independent cinema that will hopefully become better known.” – Little White Lies Feb 10, 2019 Full Review The Kindness of Strangers (2019) 29% EDIT “Even Home Alone 2 is far more indelible than The Kindness of Strangers.” – Little White Lies Feb 8, 2019 Full Review Burning (2018) 95% 4/5 EDIT “Burning takes the form of a potboiler with something more disturbing and lingering simmering underneath.” – The Skinny Dec 12, 2018 Full Review Destroyer (2018) 74% 4/5 EDIT “While Kidman's scenery-chewing is effective, the real star of Destroyer is the director, Karyn Kusama.” – The Skinny Nov 2, 2018 Full Review Unsane (2018) 80% 4/5 EDIT “Unsane is sometimes plodding for a movie that has so much going on, but it also has plenty of shocks and as a whole is deeply engrossing.” – The Skinny Mar 13, 2018 Full Review U: July 22 (2018) 81% EDIT “It's unclear whether Utøya - July 22 wants to inform or empathise, but in the event it's a self-regarding and misguided piece of exploitation.” – Sight & Sound Mar 13, 2018 Full Review Custody (2017) 96% 3/5 EDIT “Xavier Legrand generates an astonishing amount of tension, and when Custody explodes into rages, it's likely your stomach will clench up with anxiety.” – The Skinny Feb 27, 2018 Full Review The 15:17 to Paris (2018) 24% 3/5 EDIT “Eastwood is making a point here about the heroism of ordinary men, the grit behind seemingly banal bros, though it's one of the oddest and lowest-key films he's ever made.” – The Skinny Feb 14, 2018 Full Review Golden Exits (2017) 67% 2/5 EDIT “The movie is bogged down in misery and mutedness, and the effect is more suffocating than anything else.” – The Skinny Oct 12, 2017 Full Review Mudbound (2017) 97% 4/5 EDIT “You could watch the beginning and end of this movie and understand its point, but the underlying ideological concerns help Mudbound remain involving throughout.” – The Skinny Oct 10, 2017 Full Review Going in Style (2017) 47% 2/5 EDIT “Grab-bag references to comedy entertainment glory give Going in Style a soothing veneer but never cheer its hollow centre.” – Little White Lies Apr 7, 2017 Full Review The Void (2016) 78% 2/5 EDIT “You may not only find yourself craving the seedy elegance of Lovecraft or Carpenter, but also the jolting liveliness of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead.” – Little White Lies Mar 28, 2017 Full Review Song to Song (2017) 43% 5/5 EDIT “In some ways Song to Song is a more straightforward narrative than the intensely personal Knight of Cups, but just as blindingly beautiful and formally distinctive.” – The Skinny Mar 11, 2017 Full Review The Birth of a Nation (2016) 72% 2/5 EDIT “An important subject pre-digested and trivialised with a formulaic, vanity-project idea of seriousness.” – The Skinny Oct 17, 2016 Full Review Voyage of Time: Life's Journey (2016) 68% 5/5 EDIT “A visually dense treat for lovers of Malick's brand of philosophical cinema.” – The Skinny Oct 14, 2016 Full Review Toni Erdmann (2016) 93% 3/5 EDIT “Just as the film seems primed for a self-pitying, cheap-shot conclusion, there's a liberating set-piece of fumbling group adventure that achieves a mythic, cathartic quality.” – The Skinny Oct 14, 2016 Full Review
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