Simply by coincidence I had a ticket to see Parasite today, the winner of last night’s Best Picture Oscar, among many other awards. I had heard much fanfare about Parasite in the lead up to Oscars season, an underdog if there ever was one it seems; but much like the the characters in its story, it proved that underdogs can be capable of so much more than you give them credit for.
Parasite follows the story of Kevin, a young man who comes from a poverty stricken family. He proves himself a capable private langue tutor for the daughter of a rich family. Seeing an opportunity in the family's good nature, he takes advantage of them, managing to bag his sister, father and mother jobs as an art teacher, chauffeur and maid respectively at the household whilst keeping their relation to each other a secret from the rich family they work for.
However when Kevin & his family become too comfortable in their new roles, taking advantage of the luxuries they have access to, the people they have affected by their deceit do whatever they can to expose them for the con artists they are.
Is the film the best picture of 2019/2020? I don't know. It's great, but is it best picture material? Quite possibly, but I've not seen enough of the competition to make a comprehensive judgement just yet. I can certainly say however that the film is a superb. All the core components that make a great film are extremely well done and cohesive. It’s beautiful to look at, incredibly well acted by all involved (particularly Kevin & his family), the score perfectly matches the wildly varying tones of the film; and speaking of which, it manages to balance extreme comedy with harrowing violence or nerve shredding tension mere minutes apart so perfectly and frequently that the entire theatre was wildly swinging from one emotion to the other without it ever feeling jarring, something which is incredibly difficult to do well.
My biggest issue with the film was probably the ending. Without spoiling anything, once the climax of the film passes, the few minutes that come after to tie up the loose ends are pretty unsatisfying to me, it also paints a light that kind of just reinforcing the whole class system issue, which the whole films seems very keen up until that point to make a point out of being a terrible thing. Having a resolution that a prestigious university education will solve all your problems in life no matter where you come from or what has happened to you is just so wrong on so many levels and simply isn't possible for a lot of people. Kind of ends the film on a sour note but it's a small issue in the grand scheme of things.
In short, go see Parasite as soon as you can due to its limited UK release. To those of you who have an aversion to subtitles because UGH READING!!! you may want to steer clear but let it be known that you’re missing one hell of a film.
Parasite follows the story of Kevin, a young man who comes from a poverty stricken family. He proves himself a capable private langue tutor for the daughter of a rich family. Seeing an opportunity in the family's good nature, he takes advantage of them, managing to bag his sister, father and mother jobs as an art teacher, chauffeur and maid respectively at the household whilst keeping their relation to each other a secret from the rich family they work for.
However when Kevin & his family become too comfortable in their new roles, taking advantage of the luxuries they have access to, the people they have affected by their deceit do whatever they can to expose them for the con artists they are.
Is the film the best picture of 2019/2020? I don't know. It's great, but is it best picture material? Quite possibly, but I've not seen enough of the competition to make a comprehensive judgement just yet. I can certainly say however that the film is a superb. All the core components that make a great film are extremely well done and cohesive. It’s beautiful to look at, incredibly well acted by all involved (particularly Kevin & his family), the score perfectly matches the wildly varying tones of the film; and speaking of which, it manages to balance extreme comedy with harrowing violence or nerve shredding tension mere minutes apart so perfectly and frequently that the entire theatre was wildly swinging from one emotion to the other without it ever feeling jarring, something which is incredibly difficult to do well.
My biggest issue with the film was probably the ending. Without spoiling anything, once the climax of the film passes, the few minutes that come after to tie up the loose ends are pretty unsatisfying to me, it also paints a light that kind of just reinforcing the whole class system issue, which the whole films seems very keen up until that point to make a point out of being a terrible thing. Having a resolution that a prestigious university education will solve all your problems in life no matter where you come from or what has happened to you is just so wrong on so many levels and simply isn't possible for a lot of people. Kind of ends the film on a sour note but it's a small issue in the grand scheme of things.
In short, go see Parasite as soon as you can due to its limited UK release. To those of you who have an aversion to subtitles because UGH READING!!! you may want to steer clear but let it be known that you’re missing one hell of a film.