Mickey 17
Multiple Robert Pattinsons, Multiple Laughs, Multiple Genres, Multiple Madness.
In a distant future, an earthly shmuck named Mickey Barns (Robert Pattinson) applies to become an “Expendable” for a colonist corporation, allowing for his body to be cloned after he dies during dangerous manual labour in outer space. Mickey is used to test the unknown atmosphere and environment of a planet called ‘Niflheim’ where the head of the company, a Trumpesc leader, Kenneth Marshal (Mark Ruffalo) plans to build a ‘pure’ and ‘white’ civilisation. Mickey gets easily tired of constantly dying but gets wrapped up in more trouble after having been presumed dead during a mission, he returns home to find the next Mickey, Mickey 18, already printed. While Mickey must figure out how to keep his selves secret, Marshal launches a war against the indigenous lifeform on ‘Niflheim’ which consist of shell shaped mole creatures called “creepers” who may not be the real enemy.
With a six-year hiatus since his ground-breaking film Parasite (2019), which made history at the Oscars, there is inevitably high expectations going into Mickey 17 with South-Korean director Bong Joon-Ho’s return, and if you are familiar with his his vast work of oddball black comedy there is plenty of that fresh Bong whimsy to find in Mickey 17, but maybe it is all just a bit more befuddling too. Adapted from the novel ‘Mickey 7’ by Edward Ashton, Mickey 17 fits nicely into place among Bong’s work, much closer to the satirically inflicted chaos of The Host (2006) and Okja (2017), the latter especially, it is a human centred story facing off against another greedy capitalist institution.
Robert Pattison is the gift that keeps on giving, with a winning run of complex performances in indie films like Good Time (2017), the Lighthouse (2019), and carrying epic magnetism in blockbusters such as Tenet (2020) and The Batman (2022), but now he reaches multi-absurdist lengths playing not just one but two characters. Both are Mickey, though vastly different in personality, Mickey 17 is weak and clumsy, Mickey 18 is dark and brave, Pattinson goes for a slapstick style of duel acting inspired by Jim Carey, in fact the film has a general 90s comedy vibe like Multiplicity (1996) but set in space. Pattinson’s commitment to the tonal shifts is wild and surprising especially alongside Naomie Ackie who plays Mickey’s girlfriend Nasha. Together Ackie and Pattison share a crude love story that only gets weirder when there are two Mickeys. Steven Yeun is Timo, Mickey’s huckster friend who illegally distributes a drug around the colony.
Through this mad, silly sci fi comedy, Mickey 17 juggles multiple ideas including, manual labour death, colonialism, unjust war, and cooperate greed. While Bong’s script is playful and with the satire perceptibly on the nose, you can’t help but wait for the moment the film will cut to the core of its general themes. The underwhelming fact is that it never really kicks into a higher gear of twisted or disturbing social-political reflections that we have come to expect from Bong Joon-Ho satire. Bong’s storytelling is loose but too unfocused that is can never settle on one concise point, with a fluidly shifting mood that feels uncertain of the film it wants to be, and it ends up meandering between mindless quirky gags with disjointed characters changing direction and presence rather carelessly. It’s not that its not a fund ride to go on, but your just left wondering what really was the point of it?
What you are left with is a rowdy comedy that spends more of its 2hr 17min runtime enjoying its own stupidity than the diving into an overall message. I mean you get Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette chewing scenery with their political caricatures spewing out ridiculous lines about ‘forced mating’ and ‘new sauce’ recipes through their giant white teeth and golden wigs. I more than encourage any joke targeted at stupid political leaders, though the Trump impersonations are beginning to feel like a tired cliché already. It kind of becomes like a long-extended episode of Futurama, and I love Futurama, but there is a point when the joke is beginning to drag.
As films where Robert Pattison sulks in space over the pain of life, I think Claire Denis’ High Life (2019) is a deeper film, but for a good laugh with an outrageous freewheeling spirit Mickey 17 is awkwardly enjoyable, and I mean hell it’s just nice to have a new Bong Joon-Ho film.
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