"Parasite"

 ☆☆☆☆½ 

What an overused word "thriller" has become; you see it everywhere for films that neither thrill nor excite, and just as the word may feel, in this streaming age, to have lost much of its meaning comes Bong Joon Ho's Parasite, a thriller in every sense of the word.

It is thrilling to watch this film so masterfully and carefully move its story from one scene to the next, making such perfect sense even when the result seems impossible. It is thrilling to watch its characters learn the myriad truths buried in its story. And there's the thrill of realizing just how fully it has explored some hard societal truths -- while never once seeming preachy.

Most thrilling of all is the way that Parasite keeps its audience in a vice-grip of emotions, and it has taken me a while to understand just how thoroughly this movie worked on me, in large part because of its cool, visually detached style. But midway through Parasite, I found myself sitting tall in my chair, leaning forward, at one point even moving forward until I was, indeed, on the edge of my seat in every possible way.

If I haven't mentioned anything at all about the story of Parasite, it's because the less you know about its surprises before you go in, the better. It is a film every viewer should be allowed to discover in the moment, to appreciate the sly and devious ways it gets under your skin and stays there.

Viewed Oct. 13, 2019 -- ArcLight Hollywood

1330