Parasite Named Best Film of The Century By New York Times Poll

Bong Joon Ho’s searing class satire struck a chord with an audience of 500 filmmakers and actors.

Parasite, the critically acclaimed 2019 black comedy by South Korean director Bong Joon Ho, has topped the New York Times Best Movies Of The 21st Century poll. The sharp social satire, which won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, was elevated by the paper’s hand-picked selection of 500 directors, cinematographers, actors, and other experts in the cinematic sciences, bar a few obvious candidates whose invitation clearly disappeared into the spam folder. Ah, well. C’est la guerre.

Not that I’d argue. Parasite is a miracle of a film – a legit 10/10 banger, just as funny and shocking and delirious and pointed as you could want. It certainly would have gotten my vote – as it got Julianne Moore’s, who named it on her ballot.

The NYT poll is a fascinating look at the current state of play re: screen culture, as well as a handy reminder of how many great films we’ve had thrown our way over the past 25 years. It’s easy to forget. For one thing, “death of the industry/artform” takes are money in the bank, baby. For another, the culture moves so fast that’s it’s now easier than ever for blistering good stuff to slip past you like an underage kid past a bouncer flirting with another underage kid, as silent and stealthy as the Red October.

Parasite shares the top 10 with the likes of Mulholland Drive by the late and legendary David Lynch; Hayao Miyazaki’s sublime Spirited Away; the Coen Brothers’ devastatingly good Cormac McCarthy adaptation, No Country For Old Men; and Paul Thomas Anderson’s pompous and overblown There Will Be Blood (look, they can’t all be winners – bloody Amélie‘s probably in there, too).

George Miller‘s nigh-perfect Mad Max: Fury Road narrowly missed out on the top 10. The post-apocalyptic masterpiece clocked in at #11, handily reminding us that we should never take this sort of thing too seriously.

Other notable appearances include an Ang Lee twofer, with Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at #17 and #16, respectively; another twofer from Wes Anderson at #22 and #21 with The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Royal Tenenbaums; Céline Sciamma’s devastating love story, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire at #38; and… I fucking knew it, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s twee pancreas-killer, Amélie, at #41.

Ah, don’t sweat it – it’s all subjective.

Scarf aficionado Christopher Nolan picked up the most rankings with five, closely followed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the Coen brothers, and Alfonso Cuarón, who all scored four each.

Disagree? You can inflict your own top 10 upon an unsuspecting world here.