15 Best Movies To Watch After Parasite (2019)
Ghostlight
Watch afterA Quiet Place (2018), Avatar (2009), Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Joker (2019),
Oppenheimer (2023) Parasite (2019), Poor Things (2023), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), The Menu (2022), Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021),
“I don’t know what normal is,” Dan Muller (Keith Kupferer) says toward the end of Ghostlight. His family might be dramatic, but to him, “they don’t get it from me.” And maybe he’s right. He’s a Chicagoland construction worker whose marriage to Sharon (Tara Mallen) isn’t particularly strong. When they receive a call from their daughter’s (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) school, they learn she’s been expelled for allegedly shoving a teacher. Perhaps it’d be “normal” for 16-year-old Daisy to go through a turbulent phase, but as the movie slowly reveals, the three are reeling from a tragedy.
The movie approaches what happened with a euphemistic ambiguity for almost an hour, even if it’s rather obvious early on. And the stress is accumulating. While preparing for a deposition, Dan berates a pedestrian on the job, resulting in a temporary leave. As chance would have it, though, a stranger named Rita (Dolly De Leon, Triangle of Sadness) witnesses the altercation. And guess what? She’s in a local theater troupe putting on Romeo and Juliet. So, what does this blue-collar, midwestern dad do? Despite not knowing the story, he joins in, which mirrors some stuff he’s still grappling with. It’s funny how that always happens.
It's a contrived bit of plot in the face of character progression, and not the only time Ghostlight forces itself forward despite trying to feel seamless. How on-the-nose the concept is is another issue. And yet it mostly works, thanks in part to the movie’s tonal and technical normalcy. Kelly O’Sullivan & Alex Thompson’s direction may not leave the starkest impression, but they know how long to hold on a scene. The result welcomes the viewer to see their characters past the occasional issues with O’Sullivan’s script. Continue Reading →
AGGRO DR1FT
SimilarBangkok Dangerous (2008), Conspiracy Theory (1997), From Russia with Love (1963), Hitman (2007), Léon: The Professional (1994), Lucky Number Slevin (2006), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), You Only Live Twice (1967),
Perhaps it’s best to talk about AGGRO DR1FT by specifying something: this isn’t a movie. It sometimes doesn’t even feel like art. Harmony Korine’s latest premiered at the Venice Film Festival to a mixed reception and has gone on to a limited theatrical run, but that doesn’t make it a film.
Stretches of it feature AI-generated visuals, the dialogue is barely present enough to be asinine, and there’s no true emotion behind its infrared photography. Some parts of it even look bad—like utter garbage, really. As for its 80-minute runtime? Well, even that has some boring pockets. And yet, despite all this, it works, perhaps because of it rather than against it. Whether about what’s onscreen or not, it makes the audience think. In that way, it’s incredibly stimulating, particularly given the material involved.
Korine’s work here follows BO (Jordi Mollà), a depressive Miami assassin whose voiceovers wax on about how much he loves his wife and two kids. “I close my eyes. They give me purpose,” he moans. Put this up against an angel-winged baddie who thrusts his pelvis and grunts, “Dance, bitches,” to women locked in go-go cages, and that’s about as deep as anything gets. One is good. One is bad, and maybe a drug lord or whatever. The former is trying to execute the latter. Again, this isn’t a movie. It’s an approximation of one, and any themes that arise during the experience of seeing it are unrelated to what it follows. Continue Reading →
Baghead
SimilarAlien (1979), Bride of Re-Animator (1990), May (2003), Wild at Heart (1990),
Watch afterInception (2010), Joker (2019), Parasite (2019),
Sometimes when a loved one exits this mortal coil, they leave us something we don’t necessarily want. Outstanding bills, for instance. Or perhaps a piece of truly hideous artwork, or a cursed doll collection, or a house stuffed to the eaves with worthless junk, and we’re stuck dealing with it.
Or, like the main character in Alberto Corredor’s Baghead, you inherit an ancient malevolent creature with a connection to the dead. What do you in that situation? Do you try to foist it off on a cousin you never cared for? Maybe sell it on Facebook Marketplace? Well, if you’re Iris (Freya Allan), you turn it into a moneymaking venture, because why not? What could possibly go wrong??
Iris has inherited a pub from her late estranged father (Peter Mullan) that’s inexplicably in the middle of Berlin, even though every character in the movie is British and the pub looks like the Winchester in Shaun of the Dead. Despite it being a pub, it doesn’t appear to have paying customers, or at least not the kind you’d expect. Iris learns that hidden away in a hole in the basement is some sort of female creature wearing an Elephant Man bag over her head, and who can shapeshift into dead people. Whatever customers her father had came to the pub to communicate with deceased loved ones through the creature, paying a substantial fee for the experience. Continue Reading →
Stamped from the Beginning
SimilarA Certain Magical Index: The Miracle of Endymion (2013), I've Always Liked You (2016), Meet the Robinsons (2007), Shrek (2001), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988),
Watch afterAvatar: The Way of Water (2022) Barbie (2023) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Joker (2019),
Oppenheimer (2023) Parasite (2019), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), The Batman (2022), The Menu (2022), The Suicide Squad (2021), Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Wonka (2023),
The Netflix documentary uses historical evidence and modern scholarship to demonstrate racism's continued role in US society.
At the start of the new documentary Stamped from the Beginning, filmmaker Roger Ross Williams asks his various interview subjects, “What is wrong with Black people?” Considering that all the interviewees in question are also Black, it is unsurprising that the question’s seeming hostility initially throws many. However, once they recognize the context of that query—Williams is asking for a historical context as to what Blacks have done to deserve centuries of institutionalized racism and violence—they are more than willing and able to discuss the subject at length throughout this strong and often provocative film.
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s book of the same name inspired the Williams’ film, a karmic debt the director pays back by including the doctor among a number of knowledgeable Black female scholars and activists. Together, they discuss how the twin stains of racism and white supremacy permeate American society in ways that continue to fester today. They explain how the concept of deeming people as greater or lesser by the color of their skin was born out of slavery. The aim was to simultaneously remove enslaved people’s distinguishing characteristics to make them seem like one undifferentiated mass and drive a wedge between them and white “indentured servants” to prevent the groups from joining forces against their common enemy, the wealthy landowner. Continue Reading →
Wish
Similar101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure (2002), A Bug's Life (1998), Aladdin (1992), Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), Batman (1989), Batman Forever (1995), Batman Returns (1992), Blood and Chocolate (2007), Brother Bear (2003), Bugsy Malone (1976), Cars (2006), Catwoman (2004), Charlotte's Web (2006), Chicken Little (2005), Constantine (2005), Dances with Wolves (1990), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dogma (1999), Dr. No (1962), Enchanted (2007), Fantasia (1940), Fantastic Four (2005), Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019), Free Willy (1993), From Russia with Love (1963), Frozen 3 (), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Hellboy (2004), Help! (1965), Ice Age (2002), Inspector Gadget (1999), Lethal Weapon 3 (1992),
Live and Let Die (1973) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008),
Mary Poppins (1964) Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Meet the Robinsons (2007), Michael (1996), Momo (1986), Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Orlando (1992), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Princess Mononoke (1997), Ronia the Robber's Daughter (1984), Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004),
Shrek the Third (2007) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), The Avengers (1998), The Big Blue (1988), The Fountain (2006), The Jungle Book 2 (2003), The Karate Kid (1984), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), The Simpsons Movie (2007), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Toy Story 2 (1999), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), You Only Live Twice (1967),
Watch afterAquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Five Nights at Freddy's (2023), Leave the World Behind (2023), Meg 2: The Trench (2023), Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), Napoleon (2023), Parasite (2019), Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023), Society of the Snow (2023), The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), The Marvels (2023), Wonka (2023),
StudioWalt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Productions,
Kids deserve better than yet another dull, going-through-the-motions misfire.
The animation world was recently startled by Warner Bros.' announcement that they planned to shelve their recently completed feature Coyote vs Acme for a quick tax write-off, rather than spend money to release it. Not to be outdone, Disney Studios offers up Wish, an animated feature that is the kind of artistic misfire that deserves to be hidden away and never spoken about again. This is a creation so alternately bewildering and banal that it's implausible that at no point during the entire creative process did anyone point out the seemingly obvious fact that virtually none of it works on even the most basic levels.
Wish takes place in the kingdom of Rosas, which was founded and is currently ruled by Magnifico (Chris Pine), a seemingly benevolent sorcerer who offers peace and protection for all those who live there. The catch is that they must surrender their deepest wish to Magnifico, who stores them in the lab in his castle in bubbles and once in a great while returns one to the person who made it. Inexplicably, the people of Rosas think this is a good deal, none more so than Asha (Ariana DeBose), a teenager who is all in on both Rosas and Magnifico and is hoping that the latter will present her beloved grandfather (Victor Argo) with his wish to commemorate his upcoming 100th birthday. Continue Reading →
Once Within a Time
Watch afterA Quiet Place (2018), Avatar (2009),
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) Barbie (2023) Black Adam (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Black Widow (2021), Dune (2021), Inception (2010),
Oppenheimer (2023) Parasite (2019), Poor Things (2023), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), Society of the Snow (2023), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), The Batman (2022), The Whale (2022), Wonka (2023),
When Godfrey Reggio’s monumental experimental documentary Koyannistqatsi (Life Out of Balance in Hopi) first entered the zeitgeist, its radical nature as a postmodern film, with a thoroughly entrancing score by Phillip Glass, became intertwined with the rise of MTV and a new era of visual aesthetic being born within the music sphere. From the noise rock band Cows to electronic musicians Dr. Atmo and Oliver Leib to superstar pop singer Madonna, the film had an indelible effect on music and the music video. Continue Reading →
Memory
SimilarAmerican Psycho (2000), Annie Hall (1977), Bangkok Dangerous (2008),
Ben-Hur (1959) Cape Fear (1991), Conspiracy Theory (1997), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Do the Right Thing (1989), Donnie Brasco (1997), Enough (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Fame (2009), From Russia with Love (1963), GoodFellas (1990), Hitman (2007), Insomnia (2002), King Kong (2005), Léon: The Professional (1994), Lucky Number Slevin (2006), Man on Fire (2004),
Manhattan (1979) Maria Full of Grace (2004), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Night on Earth (1991), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Party Monster (2003), Pi (1998), Poseidon (2006),
Shaft (2000) Sliver (1993), Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Taxi Driver (1976), The Apartment (1960), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), The Departed (2006), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), The Hustler (1961), The King of Comedy (1982), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Omen (2006), The Silent Partner (1978), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), The Terminal (2004), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Usual Suspects (1995), Transamerica (2005), Twelve Monkeys (1995), War of the Worlds (2005), We Own the Night (2007), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), You Only Live Twice (1967),
Watch afterDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Morbius (2022), Parasite (2019), Society of the Snow (2023), The Batman (2022), Top Gun: Maverick (2022),
StarringRay Stevenson,
Both the main characters in Michel Franco’s Memory are struggling to deal with the echoes of their past. Sylvia (Jessica Chastain), a recovering alcoholic and single mother to 13-year-old Anna (Brooke Timber), desperately wants to forget the unspoken traumas of her childhood. Saul (Peter Saarsgard), on the other hand, can’t grab a hold of his past. He’s powerless as early-onset dementia slowly but inevitably steals it from him. After their high school reunion, he wordlessly follows her home and spends the night standing outside her building. In turn, she visits him at the house he shares with his brother (Josh Charles) and niece (Elsie Fisher). Then she takes him for a walk and accuses him of participating in a rape that she endured at the age of 12, a crime that he has no memory of committing. Continue Reading →
Dicks: The Musical
SimilarAlex Strangelove (2018),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Billy Elliot (2000), Bugsy Malone (1976), Chicago (2002), D.E.B.S. (2005), Dirty Dancing (1987), Enchanted (2007), Fame (2009), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Go (1999), La Vie en Rose (2007), Mamma Mia! (2008),
Mary Poppins (1964) Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Shall We Dance? (2004), Transamerica (2005), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971),
Watch afterAvatar (2009),
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) Barbie (2023) Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Joker (2019), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Parasite (2019), Poor Things (2023), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), The Batman (2022),
Studio20th Century Fox,
A24
The audaciously titled Dicks: The Musical comes with an equally eye-catching tagline, boasting the honor of being “A24’s first musical.” That’s bound to intrigue cinephiles everywhere. After all, not every movie studio is trendy enough to regularly sell out of logo festooned merchandise. Or even make hipster merch in the first place. Continue Reading →
Silver Dollar Road
Watch after1917 (2019), Avatar (2009),
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) Barbie (2023) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Black Widow (2021), Evil Dead Rise (2023), Inception (2010), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), Interstellar (2014), Joker (2019), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Parasite (2019), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), Saltburn (2023), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), The Batman (2022),
StudioMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
Based on Lizzie Presser’s 2019 ProPublica/New Yorker article, Raoul Peck’s Silver Dollar Road starts by barreling headfirst. Its first 15 minutes are a crash course of talking heads, introducing family members with broad, expository precision. The film shows them but doesn’t fully introduce them. Rather, it relies on graphics to fashion a sense of context. What the subjects say to the camera may provide an identity for the story at hand, but Peck’s approach renders such words largely textual. The narrative may be propulsive. The film, however, tends to feel stagnant. Continue Reading →
Dear David
Similar50 First Dates (2004), 9 Songs (2004), Aladdin (1992), Annie Hall (1977), Apt Pupil (1998), Ask the Dust (2006),
Ben-Hur (1959) Boys Don't Cry (1999) Cruel Intentions (1999), Do the Right Thing (1989), Down by Love (2016), East of Eden (1955), Election (1999), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Finding Forrester (2000), Freedom Writers (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), Heavenly Creatures (1994), I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016), Jules and Jim (1962), Let the Right One In (2008), Lolita (1997),
Manhattan (1979) Match Point (2005), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Notes on a Scandal (2006),
Rebecca (1940) Shall We Dance? (2004), Stand by Me (1986), Sugar & Spice (2001), The Karate Kid (1984), The Science of Sleep (2006), The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2022), Titanic (1997), True Romance (1993), Valley Girl (1983), Wild at Heart (1990),
StudioNetflix,
Outside of Janicza Bravo’s Twitter thread turned feature film Zola, viral social engagements have rarely yielded great art. Nonetheless, Buzzfeed Studios wades into the fray with the horror film Dear David. Based on a series of Twitter threads from their former comic artist Adam Ellis, the story chronicles Ellis’s experiences with a possible supernatural presence in his New York apartment. That may seem like a fresh idea, but the film traffics in standard scary movie tropes, a stunted look, and an overreliance on the concept. Continue Reading →
Jade
After the aggressively negative critic and audience response to 1980’s Cruising, William Friedkin took a curious “hell with it, I’m going to do whatever I want” approach to projects. None of what he directed over the next decade, save for To Live and Die in L.A., came close to receiving the kind of acclaim his early 70s career did. If anything, it seemed as though he had given up his precise, occasionally unreasonable eye for perfection in favor of churning out the most generic cable-friendly nonsense possible. Continue Reading →
The Brink's Job
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Copa 71
Our first dispatch from the festival highlights an important milestone in women's sports history, and two tales of queer resilience.
Ahh, the Toronto International Film Festival -- while we've got boots on the ground up in the chilly climes of Canada, those of us who can't swing the travel expenses are here, tackling the lesser-known releases that don't get the attention they deserve among the splashy awards campaigns and A-list stars. (Of course, there being an active strike makes that far easier, with these smaller works in even greater need of appraisal.)
Opening the Docs program at TIFF for opening night was Copa 71, an intriguing if straight-across-the-pitch documentary about the first Women's World Cup -- but not the official one endorsed by FIFA in 1991, as professional women's footballers are shocked to learn in the opening minutes. The real one, it turns out, was in 1971, organized in Mexico City at their enormous Azteca Stadium. More than 100,000 attendees filled the stands, as teams from France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and more competed for the first-ever women's football tournament -- one of the biggest crowds such a tourney has ever seen. And it's been lost to history, until now. Continue Reading →
Mickey's Birthday Party
Friedkin’s second film is a bruising affair that finds the fledgling director wielding style to produce maximum psychological damage.
In the early days of his career, William Friedkin found himself playing second banana to his collaborators. For instance, one of his earliest biggest TV directing gigs was on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Then, when he made the leap to feature narrative films, his debut was in service of Cher and Sonny Bono’s cult of personality.
In The Birthday Party, Friedkin’s second film, more well know talent once again eclipses him. Playwright Harold Pinter, whose original stage play the film adapts, also contributed the film script. Even now, the cover of Blu-rays and DVDs, the only way to see it currently, bills it as “Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party.” Continue Reading →
女子高生物語 淫らな果実
The Criterion Channel dives into the unique hell of being a teenager & we’ll tell you which films not to miss.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn't exist.
Back to school time is here, and maybe you’re taking a moment to reflect on your high school days, that complicated, angsty time of bad skin, painful crushes, poorly timed boners, and discovering that you’re turning into a werewolf. Continue Reading →