The Big Picture · Review · Rankings
March 10, 2025/ 78 min/ Sean Fennessy · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda dig into Bong Joon-ho's post-Parasite blank check, then rank all eight of his features.
9 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
‘Mickey 17’
Bong's $120M Warner Bros. follow-up to Parasite, from Edward Ashton's novel Mickey7. Robert Pattinson plays an 'expendable' who's killed and reprinted on an ice-world expedition run by a Trump-ish megachurch figure (Mark Ruffalo). Both hosts admire the craft and Pattinson's Keaton-esque physical work, but both think the tone (noir, slapstick, and broad political satire all at once) never settles. Sean calls it the second-best movie of the year so far.
The Bong Joon-ho Rankingsall eight features, best to worst
No. 1, and it isn't close: the pair jokingly cut to 'Parasite 1, what goes 5, 4, 3.' The literalized basement-and-house metaphor, and its complicated, unhappy ending.
No. 2. His serial-killer film built on the unsolvability of life; traded influence with Fincher. Song Kang-ho is 'amazing.'
No. 3, and Amanda's personal favorite: 'Mean Spielberg mode.' A straight creature movie that's really about government and family, with that formaldehyde-down-the-drain opening.
No. 4. Sean argues it has his best ending; the closest of the Korean films to Parasite in its grounded family-crime register.
No. 5. Praised as 'the most propulsive,' with the door-breaching push forward called 'cinema,' but graded an 8 against the top four's 9s and 10s. The Weinstein cut fight is recalled.
No. 6. Amanda defends it ('mean Spielberg,' the baby-pig ending wrecks her); Sean finds it broad and thematically redundant, his least-loved of the big films.
No. 7. Placed high in the pantheon of a director with no bad films, but the tonal spray keeps it at the bottom of the majors for both.
Last. His debut comedy, 'a trial run': you can see the filmmaker forming, but neither returns to it.
Also mentioned raised along the way
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