These four half-hour shorts, all somehow (very loosely) connected to the idea of dangers of modernism, are way too varied in quality to cohere. This was a project that it seems the four directors didn't really confer on much, and as such the varied effort and quality levels were a bit jarring.
1) Rossellini, “Chastity” - God, air travel was just so different back then. Such massive space and comfort. But incels have always been with us, haven’t they. (This…
For me, Louis Garrel and Noémie Merlant, of all people, taking basic acting lessons from an ex-con (even if it's from Roschdy Zem, who is absolutely no slouch) was the moment where I felt I could relax into this movie, knowing everyone wasn't slumming it for a project. This might be a silly little heist film, but it has no small amount of heft and heart, and everyone holds up their end with verve and charm.
Also, good to know that Merlant can play het.
Parasite starts as a fun-looking little thriller about a family of grifters and their oblivious marks. But then the heat turns up, and then it finds another gear, and another, and soon everyone in the theater had stopped breathing, waiting for the next moment.
To call it a Korean "Get Out" as written by Dostoevsky kind of sells it a bit short. Hitchcock would be proud.
Literally every 30 seconds, for the entire run of this movie, there was a moment where something completely bonkers happened that made you rethink everything that came before. This film is the alpha & omega of cinema in 92 incestuous, mistaken identity-packed, irredeemably insane minutes. When the all-nude WWII gas chamber sequence is just dropped in in the middle, honestly I just kinda thought, oh, hell, why not.
There's murderers bumping into other murderers while the murdering is still happening, everyone…
