No Other Choice (2025)

A laid-off paper expert decides the job market has too many candidates, so he starts quietly removing them. That’s Park Chan-wook’s idea of a comedy, and it’s pitch black. It also runs 139 minutes, and a side plot about his teenage son’s stolen phones pads a middle that was already full. Everything else is sharp enough to cut paper. Lee Byung-hun is brilliant as Man-su, a proud dad who promises his wife he’ll be back at work in three months and is still job hunting thirteen months later. He’s hapless in the best way, a wannabe mastermind who gets bitten by a snake on his first stakeout and nurses a toothache he can’t afford to fix. Son Ye-jin matches him as Mi-ri, who notices more than she lets on. A fake job ad posted only to scout rivals is the coldest joke of the year. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 97%. An 8.7 because it’s savage and funny about the rat race. $566 says you see who viewed your profile on a job site tonight and size up the competition.

What works: Lee Byung-hun is hilarious and heartbreaking as a proud father coming apart, and Park stages every bungled scheme with precise, wicked timing.

What doesn’t: At 139 minutes it’s longer than it needs to be, and the son’s stolen-phone side plot adds runtime more than meaning.

Who it’s for: Grown-ups who like their satire bleak and their comedy uncomfortable, and anyone who has ever refreshed a job board at two in the morning.