By Bob Bloom The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Oct. 27, unless otherwise noted: Parasite: Special Edition (Blu-ray) Details: 2019, The Criterion Collection Rated: R, language, graphic violence, sexual content The lowdown: The Kim family — father, mother and adolescent son and daughter — has nowhere to go but up. They live in a cramped basement apartment, surviving by folding pizza boxes for money. But the family, especially father Kim, has aspirations. The elder Kim is more schemer than dreamer. And the foursome, thanks to a friend of son Kim Ki-woo may have found a way to begin climbing their first rung up the ladder to a better life. That appears to be the premise of Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite.” But similar to the director’s earlier movies, what you see can be deceiving or change in an instant. Circumstances allow the family — one by one — to go to work for the rich Park family and, step-by-step, they infiltrate themselves into that family’s life. Bong, though, has more on his mind than a story about a family of grifters. This Academy Award-winning movie is all about improving your lot in life, gaining wealth and security and the consequences of resentment and disappointment. What Bong began as a social satire is transformed into an upsetting and ominous manifesto about dashed dreams and sunken expectations. To divulge any more details would be a crime. “Parasite” needs to be seen unencumbered by too much knowledge. Bong provides a master class in filmmaking; his visual style and framing of shots keeps you involved and anxious about what is to come. Critics exalted the film, giving it a 99 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
New to View: Oct. 27
New to View: Oct. 27
New to View: Oct. 27
By Bob Bloom The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Oct. 27, unless otherwise noted: Parasite: Special Edition (Blu-ray) Details: 2019, The Criterion Collection Rated: R, language, graphic violence, sexual content The lowdown: The Kim family — father, mother and adolescent son and daughter — has nowhere to go but up. They live in a cramped basement apartment, surviving by folding pizza boxes for money. But the family, especially father Kim, has aspirations. The elder Kim is more schemer than dreamer. And the foursome, thanks to a friend of son Kim Ki-woo may have found a way to begin climbing their first rung up the ladder to a better life. That appears to be the premise of Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite.” But similar to the director’s earlier movies, what you see can be deceiving or change in an instant. Circumstances allow the family — one by one — to go to work for the rich Park family and, step-by-step, they infiltrate themselves into that family’s life. Bong, though, has more on his mind than a story about a family of grifters. This Academy Award-winning movie is all about improving your lot in life, gaining wealth and security and the consequences of resentment and disappointment. What Bong began as a social satire is transformed into an upsetting and ominous manifesto about dashed dreams and sunken expectations. To divulge any more details would be a crime. “Parasite” needs to be seen unencumbered by too much knowledge. Bong provides a master class in filmmaking; his visual style and framing of shots keeps you involved and anxious about what is to come. Critics exalted the film, giving it a 99 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.