‘Mickey 17’ Review: It Is Robert Pattinson x 2 In Bong Joon Ho’s Hilarious, Humane, And Thought-Provoking Satire – Berlin Film Festival
A review of 'Mickey 17' , Bong Joon Ho's first film since Parasite, a biting funny satire with Robert Pattinson in two roles and the world upside down.
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Services to share this page. 'Mickey 17' Warner BrosAlthough it is science fiction to its core, Director Bong Joon Ho‘s first film since his Oscar winning Parasite six years ago, is in many ways a not-that absurd look at where we just might be headed as a society.
Mickey 17 is on its surface about a hapless, slightly less than average Macaroon chef who no longer can take Earth and its ever-so-decaying condition that has led thousands daily to board a spaceship to a more promising planet life – or so they think. Nevertheless Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) is just a guy whose life is seen as expendable (a word he uses on his application), and like a lab rat, his new day job is, wait for it, dying. Yes, Mickey is part of constant experiments to help researchers see what causes death and disease, and so he is put through the ringer and reprinted repeatedly, dying over and over again, always being printed again to continue the process. He is to the narcissistic wannabe dictator on the ship, Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his ambitious wife Ylfa (Toni Collette), a sub-human, dismissable and invisible, a cog in the wheel of their plans. Things move along, Mickey dies and dies and dies until accidentally he is somehow printed twice, and Mickey 18 comes into the picture, a person who sees things differently, wants a different life and serves as the flip side of Mickey 17’s conscience. The dynamic creates a real quandry as all of this puts Mickey 17 and 18 in harms way, a danger to the whole enterprise and one that must be done away with.
Related Stories NewsJessica Chastain On Finding Artistic Freedom With Michel Franco & Why She Remains Hopeful About U.S. Politics: "We're Still Fighting The Good Fight"If you have seen the trailers for this ambitious sci fi mind trip you know this is not cookie cutter studio filmmaking but yet another brilliant and wildly original movie that can’t be compared to any other coming from a major right now. This one is from Plan B which is always going for something different, and backed by Warner Bros betting on Director Bong’s track records, all those Oscars, and a movie that might just find its audience with any luck. It premiered at Berlin Film Festival today.
Watch on DeadlinePattinson is a revelation here, taking on both Mickeys, giving them distinct personalities and conflict, deadpan and dead, a hilarious performance that takes on new dimension as the story progresses. This is clearly one of his best, if not riskiest, screen outings and the actor delivers. As the kickass security agent, Nasha, a woman who has a mind of her own and knows how to use it, Naomi Ackie hits all the right notes as she finds worth in Mickey, and later love. She is a necessary protector and their relationship is sweet as Mickey is a bit hapless. His best friend since they were kids together in an orphanage, Timo (Steven Yeun) is a bit tougher to get a handle on, a guy who is trying to get by maybe at the expense of others, a bit of a puzzle as he asks Mickey what is is like to die, but not sure of his own survival skills. Yeun nails this but I wish he had more screen time.
Ruffalo follows his whacked-out Oscar nominated Poor Things work with yet another nutcase, a sub par Donald Trump named Kenneth Marshall, who wants to lead this new colonization but was a complete failure on earth. He is a total narcissist but a man who is completely unqualified in every way except to have no empathy, a class divider who constantly needs reassurance from his wife, perfectly played by Collette. Both actors invest this made-for-each-other couple somehow loving and pathetic at the same time. With all that is going on in D. C. these days you almost could look at Marshall as a perfect candidate to run an agency, so completely unqualified but trying to succeed away from the world in which he failed. Ruffalo is over the top in a good way.
Then there are the Creepers, weird insect-looking things with teeth for miles and as we will understand are misunderstood. At first they are alien-like frightening, a prop for one of Mickey’s deaths early on except it doesn’t go as one might expect. They are divided into Mama, Juniors, and Baby Creepers, and like the last third of Bong’s wonderfully crazy but humane Okja, the film in the director’s canon that most reminded me of Mickey 17 due to its naked humanity in the shadow of all this death, the Creepers will have you rooting them on, just as those pigs marched into a slaughterhouse did so heartbreakingly in Okja. Credit VFX supervisor Dan Glass and his team for winning work here.
The cinematography from Darius Khondji, and inventive production design from Fiona Crombie of this futuristic place that varies between drab lab-like atmosphere and garish digs of Marshall is first rate, as is the tricky editing pace of Yang Jinmo who keeps this 2 hour and 19 minute running time brisk and moving.
Based on the book by Edward Ashton, Director Bong has adapted with a distinctive cinematic style as a dizzyling funny but pertinent satire, political in the sense of being led into hopelessness by the stupidity of unfeeling leaders, but also in the end a cautionary tale about finding real worth in yourself and stepping up to claim it. Mickey 17 is about dehumanization, class divide, superiority by those most inferior, and a feeling we are all falling down the rabbit hole -until we find a way to climb out. For those who can identify with standing in line just to stop the world and get off, this is the movie for you, a death defying and dizzying wild ride. Of course Director Bong invests it all with wry, sometimes even silly, humor but Paddy Chayefsky for one would have loved it.
Producers are Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bong Joon Ho, and Dooho Choi.
Title: Mickey 17
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Festival: Berlin Film Festival
Release Date: March 7, 2025
Director/Screenplay: Bong Joon Ho
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun
Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hours and 19 minutes
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