The Academy Awards have had a spotty observe report in the case of awarding the Finest Image prize over the past couple of a long time. Certain, generally the Academy provides the trophy to Oppenheimer, a verifiable traditional and towering achievement in storytelling, however extra usually than that it goes to middling or outright unhealthy movies, like Nomadland, Inexperienced Guide, Birdman, and Argo, or motion pictures time has forgotten solely, like The Artist or CODA. However now that Parasite has arrived on Netflix, it’s a good time to remind your self that each every now and then, the Academy finds the power at hand its greatest award to a film that’s actually particular.
To say director Bong Joon-ho’s black comedy about class has aged properly could be an understatement. All the things about Parasite’s story of the poor Kim household conning their manner into the lives of these above them (each figuratively and actually) within the Korean social strata nonetheless works splendidly on a thematic stage. However what could shock viewers upon revisit is simply how bleakly humorous the film’s varied sequences are.
No sequence of occasions in any film from the final decade is as equally tense and horribly humorous because the household’s poisoning of the Park household’s earlier maid as a way to get her changed. Director Bong weaponizes his personal wonderful filmmaking and intelligent writing to tug the viewers into a really uncomfortable place: We spend the sequence rooting for this household to take advantage of this lady’s allergic reactions to steal her livelihood. It’s objectively terrible, however so are the household’s circumstances.
Managing to maintain our sympathies and the stress excessive for that whole scene could be spectacular sufficient, however Bong Joon-ho manages to maintain that delicate steadiness via the complete movie — one thing he appears to be persevering with in his subsequent film, Mickey 17, if the trailers are any indication. Loads of motion pictures handle to combine in parts of horror, comedy, and thriller-like pressure, however most of these motion pictures do it elsewhere throughout their run time. One of many issues that makes Parasite so terrifically distinctive is that each second of the movie feels infused with all these genres directly. That is additionally what makes it not only a worthy Finest Image winner, however a very particular one.
After all, none of this Parasite reward is to say that the Academy hasn’t performed something proper within the final 20 years. Moonlight’s Finest Image win continues to set a shining instance of what the Oscars will be, and nominated alongside Parasite have been Little Girls and As soon as Upon a Time… in Hollywood, each of which might have served as worthy winners. However, as we head into one other month of discourse a few significantly weak crop of Finest Image nominees at this 12 months’s Academy Awards, together with a couple of actually bleak choices, it’s price heading to Netflix to remind ourselves of how fortunate we’re that Bong Joon-ho’s masterpiece acquired the popularity it deserved.
Parasite is streaming on Netflix and out there for digital rental/buy on Amazon and Apple TV.