Months after Jordan Peele’s Us explored the haves and have nots duking it out in a surreal version of contemporary American society, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite (A-) elevates class warfare to a whole new milieu via a dark comedic story of the extraordinary denizens of a blissed-out South Korea metropolis. The visionary director introduces viewers to a lower-class family of four rising to roles in a posh home tutoring, cooking for and driving the domicile’s privileged occupants. Is this jaw-dropping story a searing supernatural thriller or a ghost tale, dramatic chess game or upstairs/downstairs allegory? With shifting mixed-genre shenanigans, it’s all these and more. The film is fierce, frisky and funny as it makes salient points about the underbelly of society with inhabitants clawing for a way out of the funk of a bunker mentality. Favorite characters in this twisty treat are the resourceful sister played by Cho Yeo-jeong and the prideful and practical father portrayed by Song Kang-ho. The mansion at the center of the narrative is a fantastical fixture almost as labyrinthine as the pulpy plot points. Aside from some silly pratfalls and a lugubrious epilogue, expect consistent shock and awe from this inventive cinematic import.
Alfonso Cuarón’s family drama set in a middle class Mexico City neighborhood in the early 1970s, Roma (B), is an elegiac tribute to his family’s real housekeeper who was a steady presence as the family slowly splintered. Told with a sweeping tableaux of intimate and epic moments, photographed in black and white 65 millimeter glory and using rich natural sounds without an underscore to accompany several Spanish language dialects, the film is a roaring technical achievement. Tracking shots of bustling city life, a youth revolt and an ocean vista are among its most stunning. The burden of narrative is carried largely on the shoulders of first-time actress Yaritza Aparicio, and she is marvelously revelatory and relatable. A lot happens and also not very much. There’s a long stretch of cleaning house and talking to the dog. There are multiple sequences of the family children talking but not saying much. But then the protagonist is hoisted into a world of opulent cityscapes, profound joy and grief and even a moment or two of genuine action against the backdrop of rising political unrest and tension. Cuarón beautifully and fully recreates the squalor and splendor of his semi-autobiographical childhood memories with his camera floating through its settings and subjects as if caught up in a dream. The storytelling is spare and lacks dramatic characterizations and fully realized linkages to match the power of the visuals. See it in theatres if you can, but even on 
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (C+) is a peculiar cinematic work: a re-creation of the bloody death of Jesus Christ, which we presume is intended as an exercise to depict the intensity of personal sacrifice suffered by man’s ultimate martyr. As played by Jim Caviezel, the actor doesn’t get much opportunity to act the part but rather to be the part. Gibson should be applauded for authenticity in filming on location and in the Aramaic language, although he throws in some bizarre effects and lingers on some strange exchanges that could play into charges of religious intolerance. The overall film is graphic and punishing and technically quite an accomplishment in its nightmarish depiction of brutality; but in telling the story of the life of one of the most remarkable figures to have ever walked the earth, it is a curious choice to hone in on only the torture that ended that life.
Alfonso Cuarón’s Mexican coming-of-age film Y Tu Mamá También (A) features Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna who take Maribel Verdú on a road trip that leads to a variety of surprising discoveries. Frank in its sexual content, bawdy and bold in its humor and choices and nostalgic in its glimpses at a nation in transition, it’s an amazing journey and a rejuvenating cinematic experience.