A Glean movie guide
Beyond the Surface: Films Like Parasite
Class warfare, served cold.
Sharp social satires and tense thrillers that expose the divide between the haves and have-not
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Shoplifters
A heart-wrenching look at a family living on the margins of society through petty crime.
In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.
- 02
Burning
A slow-burn mystery that masterfully captures the simmering resentment between social classes.
'Burning' is a conversation between two young mothers brought together by strange and cruel social realities, at a funeral ghat in Varanasi
- 03
The Handmaiden
An exquisite, twist-filled thriller centered on an elaborate con within a wealthy estate.
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sookee, is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle Kouzuki. But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to steal her fortune.
- 04
Snowpiercer
Bong Joon-ho’s visceral sci-fi epic that turns a speeding train into a literal class hierarchy.
In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer; a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.
- 05
The Housemaid
The classic South Korean thriller that pioneered the 'intruder in the house' class dynamic.
Eun-yi is hired as a maid in a mansion owned by a wealthy businessman. He quickly starts seducing his employee who seemingly has little choice but to comply with his sexual advances. Soon the women of the family plot against Eun-yi who must fight an equally devious battle to protect herself.
- 06
The White Tiger
A biting, darkly comic journey of an ambitious driver navigating India's rigid class structure.
An ambitious Indian driver uses his wit and cunning to escape from poverty and rise to the top. An epic journey based on the New York Times bestseller.
- 07
The Menu
A razor-sharp satire that blends high-end culinary culture with escalating survival tension.
A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.
- 08
High and Low
Kurosawa’s masterpiece using vertical space to illustrate the distance between the rich and the poor.
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
- 09
Saltburn
A provocative and stylish exploration of obsession and class envy within a grand English manor.
Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family's sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.
- 10
Triangle of Sadness
A grotesque and hilarious satire that flips the script on wealth and survival.
A celebrity model couple are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged, alcoholic captain. What first appears Instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island in a struggle of hierarchy.
- 11
Get Out
A groundbreaking social thriller that uses horror to expose the discomfort of systemic inequality.
Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.
- 12
Mother
A dark, unpredictable mystery about a mother’s desperate fight against a system that has failed her.
Mother compiles clips of mother figures from classic Hollywood cinema and television dramas. The figures range from the Virgin Mary and Mother Courage, to characters from Maude (1972–78), Aliens (1986), Imitation of Life (1959), and American Gangster (2007). The characters play out scenes of care, loss, emotional manipulation, abandonment, and grief. The intense relationships between mothers and daughters are especially prominent.