Paul Malcolm

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L.A. Weekly
For 173 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 34% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 62% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 17.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Paul Malcolm's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 48
Highest review score: 90 X
Lowest review score: 0 Black Knight
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 50 out of 173
  2. Mixed: 70 out of 173
  3. Negative: 53 out of 173
173 movie reviews
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    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Paul Malcolm
    E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
    The film's real power to move flows from its low, childlike angles, which, rather than infantalize its audience, bring it down to where the hurt and fear, and hence the comfort, loom larger. [2002 re-release]
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Goya in Bordeaux
    Storaro's gorgeous cinematography imbues every frame with an enthralling subjectivity.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    Time and Tide
    Extraordinarily witty (nothing new for this director) while coming off as a taunt to anyone who'd dare to follow in his wake.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    Nine Queens
    Writer-director Fabián Bielinsky's devilish Nine Queens serves as further evidence that Argentina's film industry is at the forefront of a resurgent Latin American cinema.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Big Eden
    A rosy, hearthside fantasy of acceptance that's so assured in its writing and direction, it's nearly impossible not to believe.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Session 9
    A deft exercise in atmospheric horror and insanity. Which is why it's unfortunate that, ultimately, Anderson steps back from the brink.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Audition
    How Miike gets us from amiable point A to debilitating point B is a remarkable act of manipulation and control that may leave you feeling sucker-punched, even brutalized, but you won't forget the experience anytime soon.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Shadow of the Vampire
    Malkovich and Dafoe play off each other with a devilish hamminess.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Pauline and Paulette
    The film's plainness, and the understated force of van der Groen and Petersen's performances, sharpen its complexity of feeling until all mawkishness is cut away.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    Sling Blade
    A remarkably moving and disturbing film about the possibility of belonging and the genealogy of violence.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    Ghosts of Mars
    It's cheap thrills all the way, served up with the kind of situational purity that only Carpenter seems to care for these days. It's that simple and that much fun.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    Black Cat, White Cat
    Kusturica's always masterful orchestration of chaos, coincidence and caricature really pays off as a sweet, soulful celebration of old friends, new loves and the mad scramble of life at the fringe.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 90 Paul Malcolm
    Scream
    A meta-horror film that hilariously parodies the genre's clichés with smarts to spare. It's also the scariest fucking movie Craven has made since the first "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
    • 47 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    The Next Big Thing
    Spins a warm and fuzzy tale about love and happiness in the cutthroat art business.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    Promises
    Proves too sincere to exploit its subjects and too honest to manipulate its audience.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Goyangileul butaghae
    Captivating coming-of-age story.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Iron Monkey
    A pure font of high-flying kung fu artistry, the likes of which has since transformed the way Hollywood's good guys and bad kick the crap out of one another.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    Sex and Lucia
    Climaxes in a flood of revelations that, like so much of the film, take us where we least expect to go.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 90 Paul Malcolm
    X
    It's all such a spectacular show.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    Shrek
    Shrek's first 20 minutes are so devilishly funny that letting go of pure belief doesn't seem like such a bad thing.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 90 Paul Malcolm
    Selena
    For all its simplicity, however, the film is entertaining, even uplifting, with Lopez giving a stellar, confectionary performance.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Quality of Life
    It's Garrison and Burnam who hold the film's center, however, with a natural magnetism. Newcomers both, they take the same clean approach to their roles that their characters bring to their tags.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
    Whether on the high seas or in the Holy Land, the film exhibits a colorful, bouncy sense of the epic (the whale's Jaws-inspired arrival even elicits a few chills), while its saving grace is a consistent sense of its own absurdity.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    The Faculty
    A tight blend of self-awareness, humor and fear.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Home Movie
    At 60 minutes, the film never stops feeling like a guided tour, while we're wishing it was a sleepover.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    The Low Down
    Thraves escapes formula by shaping the film around low-key incidents instead of speeches or overt lessons. There are plenty of side streets here.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    Girls Can't Swim
    The film's intimate camera work and searing performances pull us deep into the girls' confusion and pain as they struggle tragically to comprehend the chasm of knowledge that's opened between them.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    The Squid and the Whale
    Baumbach weds his verbal gifts to a fresh visual acuity that brings layers of rich detail to a portrait of a family coping, poorly, with self-inflicted change.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Paul Malcolm
    Sobreviviré
    The film's jarring shifts in tone ultimately serve well the complexity of the film's narrative entanglements; they feel more honest than similar Hollywood offerings.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 80 Paul Malcolm
    Jackass: The Movie
    The Jackass boys achieve true genius, however, when they take their penance public. Before stunned, inert onlookers, these skate-punk Situationists transform official zones of work and leisure -- office parks, golf courses, bowling alleys -- into arenas of dangerous stupidity to remind us that, in the end, we’re all just meat.
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