The movie that made Oscars history
A darkly enjoyable class-war thriller Dir: Bong Joon-ho 2hrs 12mins (15)
“If there were an Oscar for most boring awards event ever,” said Maureen Callahan in the New York Post, it should surely go to the Oscars. This year they decided to do without a host, which meant we had to endure a series of thirdrate introductions for each category, not least a turn from James Corden and Rebel Wilson dressed as their characters “from the colossal bomb, Cats”. It was teethgrinding. “Academy, we beg you: bring us Ricky Gervais.” Then we had to listen to Joaquin Phoenix, in his speech for best actor (in Joker), inveighing against the dairy industry; and to Renée Zellweger (best actress for Judy) taking a thinly veiled swipe at Donald Trump. Yet, the evening did not go entirely as predicted. Everyone imagined, as Jane Fonda came up to present best picture, that the award would go to Sam Mendes’s Bafta- and Golden Globe-winner, 1917; or to Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman; or to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon
a Time... in Hollywood (for which Brad Pitt did win best supporting actor). Instead, the winner turned out to be a lowbudget Korean thriller, Parasite, the first non-English-language film to win the best picture award in the Oscars’ 92-year history.
Parasite’s accolades – it also won the awards for director, original screenplay and international film – are entirely deserved, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. After years of rewarding “mediocrity”, the Academy has finally made a “bold and brilliant choice” by selecting this satirical suspense drama. The Kims are a hapless working-class family living in a hovel in Seoul, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. And when the son manages to bluff his way into a tutoring job for the Parks, a rich family living in a mansion, the entire family inveigles its way, cuckoo-style, into the Park family nest. What follows is a hilarious “domestic heist” that descends into “horribly creative bloodshed”.
The plot of this “darkly enjoyable” class-war thriller clicks into place like a Rubik’s cube, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times.
Parasite glides from social commentary to horror film to “Grand Guignol farce” without becoming heady or didactic. Indeed, the Kims, expert in the arts of deception, are far from impoverished saints, said Mark Kermode in The Observer; but then again, it turns out the Parks are pretty skilful at them too. And the narrative is more Shakespearean than Hitchcockian – a “tragicomic masterclass” in which the flawless ensemble cast hit every note perfectly. Parasite will undoubtedly get under your skin and – at risk of adding to the hype – “it really is the kind of remarkable experience that makes modern movie-going such a joy”.