Parasite

It’s great news that the Oscars have finally, if briefly, liberated themselves from the monoglot corridor and given the best film award to the South Korean movie Parasite. Like its director says, if you can leap over the tiny barrier of those subtitles, you’re liberated to discover a whole new world of possibilities. We went to see it in Shrewsbury, a week after it won, in a huge Cineworld cinema that was almost deserted. But it was still a treat - clever, surprising, shocking and ruthlessly intelligent throughout. And not quite like any other film I’ve ever seen.

So it’s almost to be expected that Trump will wade in to dismiss the Oscar award, even though he hasn’t seen the film. Back in the day, ignorant people were embarrassed about the stuff they didn’t know, but the new brutalism knows no shame. (Just imagine, Barack Obama slanging a film he hadn’t seen. Unthinkable). All Trump needs to know is that it’s in a foreign language, so it can’t be any good. and nobody who works for him has the clout or courage to tell him that airing this prejudice is a bad idea. In terms of his support base, it isn’t. I’m trying not to be despondent, but it’s really hard.