#OnTheBigScreen: Parasite, Gemini Man and Zulu Wedding

Parasite

In an age when economic polarisation and inequality show no signs of abating, and large sections of the world’s population feel more and more desperate, there is a temptation to blame others and promote easy, one-sided solutions. What Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite provides is a complex, honest allegory about the challenges we all face in a world where co-existence is an increasingly difficult ideal to achieve.

This family tragicomedy depicts the inevitable collision that ensues when Ki-woo, the eldest son in a family of four unemployed adults, is introduced to the wealthy Park family for a well-paid tutoring job.

Ki-taek’s family of four is close, but fully unemployed, with a bleak future ahead of them. The son Ki-woo is recommended by his friend, a student at a prestigious university, for a well-paid tutoring job, spawning hopes of a regular income.

Carrying the expectations of all his family, Ki-woo heads to the Park family home for an interview. Arriving at the house of Mr Park, the owner of a global IT firm, Ki-woo meets Yeon-kyo, the beautiful young lady of the house. But following this first meeting between the two families, an unstoppable string of mishaps lies in wait.

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Zulu Wedding

An unashamedly romantic, glamorous and hilarious all at the same time, and pays loving tribute to the richness of African culture. It acknowledges the, sometimes schizophrenic, reality of many urban South Africans who live sophisticated modern lives which are nonetheless shaped by their family cultures, traditions and expectations.

Lu (Lungile Sabata) left South Africa and her Zulu-Sotho heritage behind to become a dancer in America, and when she falls in love with Tex (Darrin Dewitt Henson), she knows he’s the man to marry. But when she brings Tex home to meet her family, she discovers she’s been promised since birth to a Zulu king (Pallance Dladla). Caught between two men, two families and two countries, Lou has to come to terms with who she is so she can fight for what she wants.

Directed by Lineo Sekeleoane. Screenplay by Julie Hall.

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The Goldfinch

Intimate in its emotion and sweeping in its design, this film adaptation of Donna Tartt’s globally acclaimed and beloved bestseller of the same name is directed by Bafta award-winner John Crowley (Brooklyn), from a screenplay by Oscar nominee Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).

The tragedy of a terrorist bomb explosion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art changes the course of a young man’s life, sending him on a stirring odyssey of grief and guilt, reinvention and redemption, friendship and even love. Throughout the turbulent years, as he grows into adulthood, Theo (Ansel Egort) secretly clings to a single, precious object – his one tangible connection to the mother he lost on that terrible day – a priceless painting of a tiny bird chained to its perch. The Goldfinch.

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Gemini Man

Will Smith plays a veteran ex-Special Forces sniper turned assassin for a clandestine government organisation and, with the assistance of ground-breaking visual effects, Junior, the mysterious younger operative with peerless fighting skills who is suddenly targeting him in a global chase.

A DIA agent (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is sent to surveil Henry, and a former Marine officer (Clive Owen) wants to create his own personal military organisation of elite soldiers.

Directed by Ang Lee (Life of Pi) from a screenplay by David Benioff and Billy Ray and Darren Lemke.

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The Addams Family

In the first animated film featuring this iconic family, Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Uncle Fester and Grandma join a lively cast of characters to remind us why they are the most eccentric family in the neighborhood. Except in this case, they are the most eccentric family in the run-down mansion on top of a fog-surrounded hill in New Jersey (a nod to creator Charles Addams’ home state).

Happily ensconced in their Addams way of life for years, Gomez and Morticia prepare for a visit from their extended family for Pugsley’s “Sabre Mazurka,” a rite of passage ceremony to prove he is ready to become an Addams Family man. Little does the family know, their neighbour down the hill – design TV phenom Margaux Needler – is constructing a prefabricated community, replete with technicolour pop and perfectionism.

When the fog lifts, Margaux is disconcerted to see The Addams Family mansion – the one thing standing between her dream of selling all the houses in the neighbourhood and being adored as a TV personality forever. As Pugsley struggles to learn the complicated “Sabre Mazurka” routine, Wednesday finds herself struggling with coming-of-age. She befriends Margaux’s daughter Parker and pushes boundaries, as well as, Morticia’s buttons by joining in on “normal” pursuits like attending public school, cheerleading and pink barrettes.

A hilarious and endearing tale of acceptance, The Addams Family brings Charles Addams’ New Yorker cartoons to life and will inspire people of all ages to embrace a new idea of what is normal.

Directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman.

Read more about the latest and upcoming films at writingstudio.co.za/lets-go-to-the-movies