19/366 Parasite

[ironymaiden]

i got to see Parasite today. i had been told that i should stay as unspoiled as possible, so i didn't even watch a trailer - just took it on faith that enough people that i often agree with on films thought that it was good.

it is. it is so good. i'm sure that i miss some of the excellence of it due to cultural ignorance (frex, there's this running joke in Knives Out where each member of the family mentions a different national origin for the nurse, and one of the characters uses some Trumpian catchphrases...i'm not sure that would play the same way outside of N America) but the class divisions are sadly universal. i encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to go unspoiled, but i think that i can say that it all starts with a poor kid lying on his resume to get a job with a well-to-do family. it's funny, there's excellent tension, and all the characters are well-drawn. it's full of twists and turns where i would wind myself up waiting for the bad thing i expected, and an entirely different thing happened instead.

definitely worth seeing, definitely worthy of awards.

Comments

[frith]

Blood! So much blood!

I think the birthday celebration on the anniversary of one's birth is a further nudge at snooty rich people imitating Americans.

[varina8]

It was so good. Like you, I went in unspoiled and am glad that I did so.

[jazzfish]

I went in having seen the trailer, which basically gives away the setup but not any of the twists. Result: I was annoyed with how long the setup took (half of the hour-plus runtime!) but pretty happy with how it played out.

I'd also heard some "oh it's about capitalism" chatter, which had me expecting something more blatant, like High Rise or Sorry To Bother You. I'm pretty happy with what I got.