Parasite (2019)

Parasite: Directed by Bong Joon Ho. With Kang-ho Song, Sun-kyun Lee, Yeo-jeong Cho, Woo-sik Choi. Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.

“I am remarkably stingy with my 10/10 ratings. Iu0026#39;ll be the first person to acknowledge this. Of the roughly 2600 titles Iu0026#39;ve rated on here, only 34 have a 10.nParasite is one of them. If this isnu0026#39;t a masterpiece, then I donu0026#39;t know what is.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;m going to keep it vague on the plot-front, because I didnu0026#39;t know anything about it going in, and was really excited to see it progress and unfold in satisfying, unexpected ways.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat I will say is that this film, more than just about any other Iu0026#39;ve seen, put me through so many different emotional states during its 132-minute runtime, and did so without ever feeling muddled or tonally inconsistent. Parts of this movie were hilarious. Parts were heartbreaking. Other parts were insanely suspenseful (Iu0026#39;m honestly not sure if Iu0026#39;ve felt this close to the edge of my seat since the final season of Breaking Bad, way back in 2013).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd it does all this while being perfectly paced, beautifully directed, and amazingly acted from every single member of its cast. All the characters are understandable and sympathetic to some degree; the amount of conflict, drama and tension derived from a narrative with no clear heroes and villains is staggering. You come to care for just about all of them.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;m stumped to come up with any flaws for this movie. And sure, Iu0026#39;ve seen many movies that are hard to fault, but itu0026#39;s rare that a movie appeals to me on a gut level and excites me to this degree while also being so close to technically perfect. Itu0026#39;s extremely entertaining, thoroughly moving in so many different ways, and as icing on the cake thereu0026#39;s a ton of social commentary and some heavy themes to chew on once the movieu0026#39;s over (and this oneu0026#39;s not going to leave my head for a while, I can tell).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCatch this one when you can and believe the hype. Joon-Ho Bong has made many great films (and so far no bad oneu0026#39;s), but this even manages to stand head and shoulders above all the others.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhen it comes time to consider what the best film of the 2010s was, this one will surely be up there.”