Masterwork

Rating: 9/10 (10 February 2020)

It is demonstrably an excellent film within the first 15 minutes and it gets better. It has a very good script, one which is honed with good characterization and motive, together with fine structural exposition. No other script in the 2020 Oscars has the qualities that this one has in terms of writing skill.
In terms of execution, the directing and other technical components, all coalesce brilliantly. It is probably the editing too where so many remarkable films excel that lifts the film again. The sequences in the house between the families are memorable here as the tension is raised with so much at stake.
The story has many layers which are relevant to this time: chiefly inequality, but also other themes too which are touched on in deft ways and through the characters so as to move the story along toward its rather terrible conclusion.
The ending is somewhat classical; a purge clarifies the entire drama, and it is effective in its own terms, but it also the only part of script that is not entirely ideal. Other choices might have been made which do not make the one we see an error.
Signalling 'wokeness' is pointless with this film. It is a very good film and will be referenced by film makers and students for years to come. That durability is honor indeed.