Parasite, 2020’s Best Picture winner, is director Bong Joon Ho’s second-best film about the depredations of capitalism.
Don’t get me wrong: Parasite’s a solid movie, particularly through the first 90 or so minutes. Bong does an impeccable job of introducing us to the loutish family at the heart of the film, a pack of grifting ne’er-do-wells who have never found work they couldn’t shirk. It’s not that the Kim family is stupid—the son is a solid enough English tutor; the daughter is skilled at the fine art of bullshitting parents desperate to help their kids—or that they’re physically infirmed (the mother won a silver medal in the hammer throw). They’re just kind of lazy and resentful of their station in life, annoyed and insulted that anyone would notice their malodorous nature.
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