Parasite is probably the best movie I saw this year.
I really enjoyed Knives Out simply because that’s a movie I’m kind of in the bag for and that they don’t make anymore so it filled this vacuum for Hercule Poirot (Suchet is the best w/o question even conceding those latter episodes were way too dour and focused relentlessly on a religious element that was pretty damn boring and made for very poor visual drama) in my life for me. I also love the energy of Promare, a vibrant & kinetic re-defining anime.
I’m also a fan of Alita: Battle Angel (don’t @ me) though I get it doesn’t quite belong in traditional versions of this conversation and I think Lulu Wang and The Farewell got shafted this award season because its a better film with better performances than the majority of those nominated for Best Picture, especially when considering it shares a similar pacing as a couple of those nominated and isn’t straight up boring like they are (can I just skip to season 2 of The Irishman or what?)
Now that all of that is out of the way, the point of this post is Parasite. Clearly the best movie of the year, directed by Bong Joon-ho who doesn’t allow for a single bad shot in this film and gets incredible performances by everyone, is real life topical across many countries, but still remains kind of decidedly this genre movie that’s also…. mad funny? This feels like the movie all of your favorite young directors wish they would make one day and your old favorites are just too old to ever do.
Unfortunately as we move through this award season it also feels like Get Out which I feel like we all knew then should have won Best Picture or Arrival, which I think was the the best movie that year but wasn’t nominated for best picture though they knew they were wrong because it was nominated for 8 other Oscars. It’s feeling more and more like they are going to give it to a solid traditional themed film that should win for editing and cinematography, not Best Picture.
But even if awards fail us what we do have is a cool looking 4k steel book being released in France in late February. It almost makes everything better and I just love it when great films get nice shelf porn art.
