Karsten has written 300 reviews for films during 2020.

Palm Springs

2020

★★★★ Liked 39

Didn’t notice the ‘The Partisan’ by Leonard Cohen needle drop the first time I watched this. In the same scene there’s a poster in the background that just says “BEER” with a photo of a horse below it. Really solid 30 seconds altogether.

Wolfwalkers

2020

★★★★ Liked 32

Undeniably and unsurprisingly one of the most gorgeously animated films of the year.

On a semi-unrelated note: It is weird that THIS was the film that really made me think about how horrific a film industry dominated by streaming services looks like. Like you can really only experience this beautiful movie if you own an Apple device of some kind. Or an Apple Id or whatever you get what I mean. Very awesome how films got so accessible and so inaccessible so fast! Not a mind-blowing thought by any means. But pretty odd the more you think about it, no? Idk

Great movie, though!

Fallen Angels

1995

★★★★★ Liked 35

happy to announce that wong kar-wai finally clicked for me and holy shit i love movies

Soul

2020

★★★★½ Liked 60

Soul is the textbook definition of a one-of-a-kind in that there’s nothing textbook about it. From the look to the music and from the structure to the story itself, everything about this is completely fresh. Like watching a Pixar film for the first time again.


The film starts with high concepts and the “adventure” ends with 30 minutes left. Joe Gardner is both gifted and soo normal. Basically, Pixar started with a concept as broad as purpose and stretched it…

Burrow

2020

Liked 9

To quote another movie, “In a way, I'm almost glad that flood interrupted us because I don't like the toast I was giving. I'm gonna start over.“

It's a Wonderful Life

1946

★★★★½ Liked 13

nobody likes getting the most out of a vowel quite like james stewart

Kajillionaire

2020

★★★★★ Liked 13

There is so much to love about this movie about being loved.


Ha ha ha ....cry cry cry :(

I'm No Longer Here

2019

★★★★ Liked 14

One of my favorite final shots of the year. What an experience this movie is.

Feels Good Man

2020

★★★★½ Liked 12

I think after watching this and Crumb, I’ve decided documentaries about comic artists are just gonna be my thing.

Swallow

2019

★★½ 14

REALLY bummed i never came around to this. while i think the way it goes about these themes is pretty clever, i didn’t really get much out of the film itself other than an “oh, neat” and some really intense squirms. said “ouch” out loud once or twice which is really embarrassing on my part. it had all the right ingredients, thumbtacks and all, but i didn’t taste a thing.

Let Them All Talk

2020

★★★½ Liked 9

Fully expected a mom-pleaser movie and, it totally is, but I also...liked it way more than I thought I would?? Super entertaining and very jazzy throughout. Mostly got a kick out of my dad roasting Lucas Hedges for his dweeby backpack in every scene. I like it! Fuck it!

Mangrove

2020

★★★★ Liked 10

I think what I love so much about this is that Steve McQueen can maintain this sense of scale while still making the case for this being a slice of something that cuts much, much deeper. Beautiful and upsetting.