Golden Globe Parties: Everyone Wants to Meet the Man Who Made ‘Parasite’

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/05/movies/golden-globes-2020-parties.html

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They throw a party in the biting comedy-drama “Parasite.” It doesn’t go so well.

At least a party thrown for the movie went considerably better on Friday night, as a marathon weekend of events and screenings commenced in Los Angeles in advance of the 2020 Golden Globes. In fact, the film’s Sunset Tower Hotel soiree turned out to be the hottest ticket of the weekend, even drawing talent from competing award contenders, including the “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” star Leonardo DiCaprio, the “Marriage Story” director Noah Baumbach and star Laura Dern, and the “Bombshell” director Jay Roach.

The “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho, who has been nominated for directing and screenwriting Golden Globes, looked a little stunned by the reception. “It’s a strange feeling,” Bong told the “Baby Driver” director Edgar Wright, one of many filmmakers who had turned out to pay respects. “We never expected all this.”

But ever since “Parasite” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the twisty South Korean movie about the haves and have-nots has racked up such a strong profile — including a best-cast nomination from the Screen Actors Guild Awards, a worldwide gross of well over $120 million, and citations on countless year-end top-10 lists — that many pundits believe it could become the first foreign-language film to win the best-picture Oscar.

Certainly, Hollywood is charmed. “Amazing movie,” a ballcap-clad DiCaprio told Bong at his party, shaking the director’s hand. The next morning, at a buffet brunch thrown for the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards, Bong was so mobbed by well-wishers and selfie-seekers that the simple act of moving from one side of the room to the other became an arduous task.

“I love meeting fellow artists and filmmakers, but parties like this are quite strange,” Bong said, musing about how different an event like this would be in South Korea: “There, we all sit down, but here, we’re always standing!" He gave me a sheepish grin. “Sometimes, my legs hurt.”

He has relocated to the United States for all of January to attend award shows and continue promoting “Parasite,” and on Saturday, he had a full slate of parties and panels ahead of him. One such event was the afternoon tea party thrown by Bafta, the London-based academy, which drew not just Bong and DiCaprio but also a strong contingent of British talent including Sacha Baron Cohen, the “Midsommar” and “Little Women” breakout Florence Pugh, and the “1917” leads George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman.

Even in a room so packed with celebrities, there was still one corner of the Bafta party bisected by a velvet rope, and behind it sat Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, who produced “Rocketman,” the Globe-nominated musical based on John’s life. As the movie’s star, Taron Egerton, posed for pictures nearby, an impressed John said, “He became a man on this film.”

I asked John if he ever wondered how “Rocketman” would have turned out if it had starred Tom Hardy, who was attached to the project several years ago. “It wouldn’t have been right. Things happen for a reason,” John said. “And he couldn’t sing!”

After Bafta, I stopped by a Netflix party so disastrously overcrowded that it reached a level of anxiety I can only compare to watching a Safdie brothers film; fittingly, I passed the “Uncut Gems” directing duo on my way out, and spotted “The Politician” lead Ben Platt and “Dolemite Is My Name” scene-stealer Wesley Snipes, too. A Lionsgate party later on at the Chateau Marmont offered more breathing room, so much so that the “Knives Out” star Daniel Craig found a nifty hiding place in the shadows by a back bar.

The film’s other stars, including Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, came around to say hello to their director, Rian Johnson. When I caught up with Johnson, he was still geeking out about the “Parasite” party he’d been to the night before.

When it comes to Bong, “I’m such a fan,” Johnson said. “I even awkwardly introduced myself to him on an airplane once.” One of the best things about awards season, Johnson said, is that it provides ample opportunities to get to know someone like Bong a little bit better.

“It’s like a traveling carnival tour, you see each other over and over,” Johnson said. “That’s the fun thing about this stuff, getting to meet the people you respect.”