Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

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L.A. Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, Village Voice
For 90 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 27% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 69% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 10.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Kristen Yoonsoo Kim's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 55
Highest review score: 90 Slow Machine
Lowest review score: 10 Donny's Bar Mitzvah
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 90
  2. Mixed: 47 out of 90
  3. Negative: 12 out of 90
90 movie reviews
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot
    If there’s one thing that Van Sant does very well here, it’s creating a humanizing anchor at the center of the story. Despite some distracting narrative choices and sketchy character development (especially with Mara’s character, who, of course, turns into a love interest), the film does eventually find its footing.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Intrigo: Samaria
    Fox is riveting as a stubborn go-getter who often employs morally questionable methods for the sake of truth and art. But her screen presence isn’t enough to fill out this lean thriller, which hits so many cliché beats along the way.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Cabaret Maxime
    Despite the classic David-versus-Goliath narrative, the story is never as mesmerizing as the grotesquely glam stage numbers and Imperioli’s illuminated face watching them, glowing with pride.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Clash
    Unfortunately, Clash buckles under the weight of its many characters.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Against the Current
    It’s not difficult to be moved and impressed by Gretarsdottir’s life story, especially when she details the secrecy of her struggles, but the story falls short in tying these emotional threads with her athletic accomplishments in an eloquent manner.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    The Vigil
    Keith Thomas’s slim but effective The Vigil milks terror from a minimalistic setup, relying on the shapes we make out with squinted eyes in the shadows.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    City Dreamers
    The documentarian Joseph Hillel tells their stories in somewhat formulaic fashion, creating a perfectly pleasant, educational movie that is not as riveting as it should be.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Roxanne Roxanne
    The film may not end on a tragic note, but in attempting a gritty portrayal of Shanté’s little-known private life, Roxanne Roxanne forgets her genius, as so many other people did back in the day.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Rose Plays Julie
    Amid the lush greenery of the setting, the atmosphere is perpetually bone-chilling — complete with an ominously high-pitched score — making the film seem distant and difficult to fully embrace
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Moscow Never Sleeps
    Moscow Never Sleeps is ambitious to a fault. While O’Reilly flexes an ability to tie together several narratives, he introduces so many characters that some of their stories must fall by the wayside. It’s a shame, because that muddles the more interesting vignettes.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Yellow Rose
    Above all, the music has the greatest staying power — it is the film’s saving grace, just like it is Rose’s during her darkest days.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Woodpeckers
    An uncharacteristically melodramatic final act...betrays how grounded (and true to real life) the rest of the movie is.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Radium Girls
    The script, by Mohler and Brittany Shaw, tends to be overtly formulaic, but the emotional resonance of the two leads carries this movie.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops
    As promising as Ernie and Joe’s program may seem, there is no insight into whether the nation’s law enforcement agencies are prioritizing these humane methods.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Finding Kim
    It’s a well-meaning portrait, with heartfelt moments — especially as Kim recounts childhood hardships — but it’s often muddled, especially in its selection of talking heads.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Pink Skies Ahead
    It is not without tender or enjoyable moments — that’s the beauty of a formula — but there’s a tonal imbalance of comedy and drama. The two constantly deflate each other.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    White Snake
    The forbidden romance has its will-they-or-won’t-they thrills, but this first feature by the directors Amp Wong and Ji Zhao, becomes a basket of tangled snakes when Blanca faces far too many obstacles.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    15 Years
    Leopold and Persi are both compelling performers, but the writer-director Yuval Hadadi renders their characters with little subtlety.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Footnotes
    Though it’s not without charming moments, this story of women standing up to the big bad guys is diminished by unimpressive song-and-dance numbers that feel like Michel Legrand throwaways.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Swallow
    Given how nauseating it is to watch Hunter perform increasingly perilous acts of self-harm in her prison of a mansion, neither the payoff nor the psychology behind her actions makes Swallow an illuminating enough addition to the woman-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown genre.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Big Time Adolescence
    Despite some moments of tenderness and easy chemistry between Zeke and Mo, “Big Time Adolescence” doesn’t have enough heart or humor to save it from becoming just another movie about white dudes bro-ing out.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    The Dinner
    The beauty of a single-location thriller is how the tension escalates in containment, but Moverman fails to seize that built-in advantage.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    The Nile Hilton Incident
    The Nile Hilton Incident, despite a stylish, seedy coating, fails to even come close to the canon of greats that have influenced it.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Picture of His Life
    For a film granted so much up-close access with its subject, Picture of His Life hears surprisingly little from Nachoum himself. Between vérité clips of the journey, the film is inundated with archival footage.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    My Darling Vivian
    The film, ultimately, still lacks Liberto’s own sense of agency.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Tales of an Immoral Couple
    The film fails to sustain the exhilaration of its initial buildup.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    My Wonderful Wanda
    The film, written by Oberli and Cooky Ziesche, satirizes class divides and xenophobia (“the Pole” constantly carries a derogatory connotation here), but never takes the satire far enough to be memorable, challenging or anything beyond whimsical.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    Elizabeth Blue
    Elizabeth inspires empathy, but it often feels like we’re being told to feel a certain way by being shown so much rather than being allowed to naturally warm up to her.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    The Times of Bill Cunningham
    This talking-head footage is a promising start that ultimately leads to a less than illuminating documentary.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
    No Light and No Land Anywhere
    There are some nicely shot moments throughout, but they feel empty — slow montages that mostly just fill out the film’s thin plot and already slim runtime.
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