'Parasite' is near perfect, capping of a fantastic year for film

Parasite is pretty much a perfect movie. It's terrific, tantalizing trailer promises an unexpected ride and boy do you get one. As great as director Bong Joon-Ho's work has been prior to this, and I'll admit to not having seen quite a few of his movies, this one feels special.

It has some of the same black humor and visual dynamism that all his films has, but somehow this film feels more prescient and more evocative of the period we're living in right now.

Class struggle has always been an intriguing subject, but sometimes it's hard to convey without being too preachy or simple. What Joon-Ho does here, which is genius, is deliver a stunning indictment of the coveting of wealth while providing huge laughs and genuine thrills in the process.

The trailer is right when it tells you that the film appears to be going one way and then goes in another -- I wouldn't dare spoil the surprises of it -- but the set-up is simple enough. An ambitious, but lower class young man stumbles into a job as a tutor for a precocious teenage girl from a wealthy family. He sees this opportunity as a chance to improve the lines of his entire immediate family and he is remarkably successful in that endeavor until he isn't.

I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at a movie and then found myself clutching my armrest with anxiety. There's a Coen-esque precision to this movie that you just have to step back and enjoy.

The performances are flawless across the board with the gorgeous Park So-Dam stealing scenes as the lead's sis and Joon-Ho regular Song Kang-ho, who in a just world should earn a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his hilarious and deeply effecting turn as the patriarch of a family of con artists (or parasites depending on your point of view).

Like so many great filmmakers, Joon-Ho makes you realign who you might have sympathy for from scene to scene. Most of the characters here have a humanity that's undeniable, and they are in a way victims of a capitalist system.

We can laugh at seeing rich people get exploited, but also be horrified when the less fortunate lash out at them. And it ends on such a graceful, ironic note that feels like the only way it could have ended.

Joon-Ho has now made a name for himself by making operatic thinking man's adventure films. Some worked like gangbusters for me -- Snowpiercer for instance -- while his Okja was only a mild success for me.

But this film proves he is a Hitchcock-caliber talent with a rhythm and perspective that is so thoroughly unique and which feels compellingly authentic. Despite being a foreign language film, Parasite isn't pretentious and it doesn't keep you at arm's length.

It's a movie that will tickle the funny bone of fans of dark comedy like me and then will stun you with its climax, which certainly shocked the audience I was in, but also felt totally note perfect with what had proceeded it.

I have seen several movies this year that I thought were unqualified masterpieces, films I know I'll be watching again and again over the years. Parasite is one of those movies. It's a courageous film and it's indicative of a year that to me will go down as one of the great movie years in recent memory.

It's unforgettable, and deserves as wide an audience as it can get.