Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite awarded Best Picture by TCAF

Recently, I flew halfway across the world for … well, let's just say that it was for "a thing." Anyway, while I was stuck flying Delta, my fellow journalists who flew Virgin got to watch Bong Joon Ho's PARASITE as one of their in-flight movie options. Lucky bastards. Upon meeting up for said "thing," it was all they could talk about. Meanwhile, I was still trying to get the acrid taste as M. Night Shyamalan's GLASS out of my mouth. But I digress. It was on that day that I made a solemn promise to myself to see PARASITE as soon an humanly possible, and now the Toronto Film Critics Association has given me yet another reason to want to check it out.

Behold! Bong Joon Ho's PARASITE has been named Best Picture by the Toronto Film Critics Association, an honor that finds the foreign thriller beating out films like Martin Scorsese's THE IRISHMAN and director Noah Baumbach's MARRIAGE STORY. In addition to nabbing the Best Picture prize, Ho also took home the awards for Best Director and Best Foreign Film.

Here's the official synopsis for PARASITE:

Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.

My apologies, that synopsis didn't exactly paint with broad strokes, did it? While I've yet to see the film, I've been told by others who have that PARASITE is an intense and somewhat surreal thriller about two families from opposite sides of the social spectrum who find themselves entangled in each other's lives. Essentially, it's a home invasion film revolving around the poor taking advantage of the rich. The invaders, if you will, feed off their hosts like parasites, which over time finds the tables turned and violence serving as a solution toward creating a new status quo.

The representatives of TCAF had a series of other awards to dole out, such as the award for Best Actor, which went to Adam Driver for his powerful performance in MARRIAGE STORY. Meanwhile, Laura Dern earned a Best Supporting Actress for her contributions to MARRIAGE STORY as well. As previously reported, Lupita Nyong'o won the award for Best Actress for her roles as Adalaide Wilson and Red in Jordan Peele's US, while Brad Pitt went home with the award for Best Supporting Actor thanks to his part as Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD.

Congrats to all of this year's TCAF winners. And oh, PARASITE, I'll see you soon enough.