This 2019 Movie With 99% On Rotten Tomatoes Was Voted The Best Of The 21st Century

We are now a quarter of the way through the 21st century, which means media outlets have been furnished with a capital excuse to assemble lists of the best music, literature, television, and, of course, movies since the dawn of the new millennium. When it comes to cinema, it appears The New York Times is the first major publication to step up with something approaching a definitive list of the 100 best films of the century thus far by asking over 500 film industry professionals (ranging from actors to executives) and critics to provide their personal top 10s. How did it turn out?

Having perused the list this morning, I found the top 100 to be frustratingly light on world cinema and too beholden to past Oscar winners and nominees. While I'm relieved that mediocrities (or worse) like "CODA," "The Artist," and the utterly wretched "Green Book" didn't receive enough votes to make the final list, I think the Times would've compiled something worth taking seriously had it included a few hundred more international voices. But it seems like the objective of this list was to get film lovers clicking through to see how their favorite actors and directors voted. While this is undeniably fun (hey, Julianne Moore's a big "Superbad" fan), the end result is pretty lightweight.

Still, I was both fascinated and just a tad fearful to find out which movie topped the list. Since the individual lists weren't ranked, this meant the top movie might be one that everyone acknowledges is great, but, maybe, not the very best. Fortunately, the top 10 is mostly respectable (David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's kid-gloved biopic "The Social Network" is way too high at number 10), and the film that was declared the best is, if nothing else, an undeniable masterpiece.

When Bong Joon Ho left the 2020 Academy Awards ceremony clutching four Oscars (for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film) for his pitch-dark satire "Parasite," the vast majority of American moviegoers were left wondering if this South Korean film was really as great as all that. Over time, people have done something they rarely do (watch a non-American movie with subtitles) and discovered that, yes, this shockingly funny film about a poor family that craftily infiltrates the home of a rich family is a one-of-a-kind triumph. It may not be a movie that you want to watch over and over again, but that's fine: "Parasite" speaks so piercingly to the plutocratic state of the world that you'll never, ever shake it from your memory. So, it's an absolutely perfect choice for the century's top movie thus far.

"Parasite" was a massive critical success when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019 and, unsurprisingly, still holds a 99% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Most importantly, it was a breakthrough film for Director Bong, whose best movie, the serial killer thriller "Memories of Murder," cracked the list at number 90. In time, I'd like to see that film rocket up the top 100, but I've a feeling "Parasite" will remain his most highly ranked movie because the societal ills it examines seem to only be getting worse.