Paul Malcolm

Making a Killing in the War On Terror

Paul Malcolm
Years from now, we’ll be able to trace the rise of the 21st-century mercenary back to the war in Iraq. This, assuming that years from now the war is actually over. For the subjects of director Nick Bicanic and Jason Bourque’s fascinating, evenhanded documentary Shadow Company, about the big business......

Goblins, Girls & Dancing Puppets

Paul Malcolm
Seeing that George Lucas produced Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986), we should be thankful that striking a new 35 mm print is all that was done for the film’s reissue this week. No digital face-lifts for Henson’s foam and cloth creatures, here, just a fresh view on an overlooked, if uneven,......
Black Irish

The Method Fest

Paul Malcolm
The concept behind The Method Fest, now in its ninth year, has always been a curious one. The fest bills itself as the only major U.S. festival that “pays homage to the actor,” but highlighting a part of the whole in such a collaborative medium as the movies only underscores......
Black Irish

The Method Fest

Paul Malcolm
The concept behind The Method Fest, now in its ninth year, has always been a curious one. The fest bills itself as the only major U.S. festival that “pays homage to the actor,” but highlighting a part of the whole in such a collaborative medium as the movies only underscores......

Lubitsch in Berlin

Paul Malcolm
In case you still think that German silent cinema was all vampires, golems, somnambulists and the occasional tragic prostitute, Kino’s “Lubitsch in Berlin” box set will finally set the record straight. After immigrating to America in 1923, Ernst Lubitsch earned a reputation for the Continental sophistication of his romantic comedies,......

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm

Paul Malcolm
Every so often it can feel like there’s nothing new to discover out there in cinemaland. Then out of left field comes a film like Symbiopsychotaxiplasm by William Greaves. Almost 40 years old and virtually unknown, it’s the kind of film that makes you remember again why you got into......
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The Premiere Frank Capra Collection

Paul Malcolm
Nothing gets me bawling faster, and with such predictability, than a Frank Capra film. Take the prime culprit It’s a Wonderful Life, for instance. After more than a dozen viewings, my eyes start misting during the title credits, and I’m outright sobbing before the end of the opening flashback when......
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Tribulation 99

Paul Malcolm
If Michael Moore were a schizophrenic, his documentaries would look a lot like Tribulation 99 (1991). Of course, if you focus on the stated subject matter of San Francisco–based filmmaker Craig Baldwin’s “pseudo-pseudo documentary,” it would be reasonable to assume that Baldwin himself were totally mad (the DVD’s liner notes,......