A Glean movie guide
Class Warfare & Dark Deceptions
The art of the social thriller.
Tense thrillers and sharp satires exploring the divide between the haves and have-nots.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Handmaiden
A lush, twist-filled Korean masterpiece of domestic deception and shifting power dynamics.
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sook-hee, 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.
- 02
The Housemaid
The classic Korean thriller that directly inspired Bong Joon-ho’s vision of domestic infiltration.
A piano composer's family moves into a new house; when his pregnant wife collapses from working to support the family, he hires a housemaid to help with housework.
- 03
Burning
A haunting, slow-burn mystery that captures the simmering resentment of class inequality.
Deliveryman Jong-su is out on a job when he runs into Hae-mi, a girl who once lived in his neighborhood. She asks if he'd mind looking after her cat while she's away on a trip to Africa. On her return, she introduces to Jong-su an enigmatic young man named Ben, who she met during her trip. One day Ben tells Jong-su about his most unusual hobby.
- 04
The White Tiger
A sharp, darkly comedic rise-to-the-top story centered on the brutal master-servant dynamic.
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.
- 05
Shoplifters
A tender yet heartbreaking look at a family of petty thieves living on the fringes of society.
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.
- 06
The Menu
A biting satire that turns a high-end dining experience into a high-stakes survival thriller.
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.
- 07
Snowpiercer
Bong Joon-ho’s visceral sci-fi allegory where a literal train car hierarchy sparks a violent revolution.
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.
- 08
The Platform
A brutal, high-concept metaphor for social stratification set within a vertical prison.
A slab of food descends down a vertical facility. The residents above eat heartily, leaving those below starving and desperate. A rebellion is imminent.
- 09
Saltburn
A stylish and unsettling exploration of obsession and class infiltration within a sprawling estate.
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
High and Low
Kurosawa’s masterful procedural that uses physical height to illustrate the vast gap between social classes.
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
- 11
Triangle of Sadness
A provocative satire that strands the ultra-wealthy on an island to flip the social script.
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.
- 12
Us
A chilling home-invasion thriller that serves as a metaphor for a forgotten underclass rising up.
Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.