Directed by Bong Joon-ho — Screenplay by Bong Joon-ho.
It boggles the mind that it’s been more than half a decade since the release of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, the first non-English language feature to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Director Bong’s Oscar-winning magnum opus is a widely recognized 21st Century masterpiece, and, thusly, the director’s follow-up to such an achievement would always be hotly anticipated, especially given the fact that his next release was a blockbuster-budgeted American studio release. In fascinating fashion, Bong Joon-ho has spent his Hollywood blank cheque, or carte blanche, on a scathing but funny political satire sci-fi flick about the way capitalist governments, whose leaders may use religion to gain and exercise power, view and treat the common person, women, and foreign territories, as well as its inhabitants. Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey7, is ambitious, messy, strangely predictive about the time we’re in, and very much a Bong Joon-ho film, even though it is very different from Parasite.
Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 follows Mickey Barnes (played by Robert Pattinson), who, after struggling to pay his debts, signs up to be part of the crew on a spaceship, led by politician Kenneth Marshall (played by Mark Ruffalo) and his wife Ylfa (played by Toni Collette), that is to leave Earth and colonize the distant snowy planet known as Niflheim. Though not entirely intentionally, Mickey has signed up to be an ‘expendable,’ which means that he has signed up to be given lethal assignments, including human testing and suicide missions. And whenever he dies, he is ‘reprinted’ through advanced cloning technology so that he can go on another mission, again and again (there’s even a neat reference to Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” with regards to how our central character’s consciousness is stored). As the film properly begins, we are introduced to the titular seventeenth edition of Mickey, and he has been left for dead on Niflheim. However, when he survives and comes back to the ship against all odds, he finds that they have already printed another version of him, thus putting him in a dangerous position, as multiple versions of the same person being alive is strictly forbidden.
You could say that there are really two tracks to Bong Joon-ho’s oeuvre: 1) the prestige pictures (see Parasite, Mother, Memories of Murder) and 2) the genre films that sometimes contain goofier elements (see Snowpiercer, The Host, and Okja). One thing, however, that all of these films have in common is Bong’s clear-eyed and fully felt passion for a political message. There is almost always an anti-capitalist message. Indeed, although Mickey 17 is definitely in the second category of films, as it is a notably goofy comedic sci-fi film, the political messaging is something it wears on its sleeves. There is nothing about Bong’s political message here that is subtle, rather it is a noticeably thick layer of contempt for capitalist world leaders that is shown through outright mockery, and, if you are able to get on its wavelength (which you should be able to if you’ve poked around in Bong Joon-ho’s rich and extremely entertaining filmography beforehand), it’s a hoot. Though, at the same time, I can also understand if the uninitiated are taken aback by the sledgehammer approach here (a film that is possibly the closest thing we’ll get to Bong’s version of Starship Troopers), which is far less subtle than what he did with Parasite.
There’s also something so interesting about how the film meets this moment in time. Although principal photography took place in 2022, there are so many things about the way the central politician is depicted, and the events that transpire, that make it feel so Trump-esque. I’ve seen quotes indicating that the filmmaker has openly denied this film being explicitly aimed at Trump, but I have to admit that I don’t buy that. Although they change just enough for the sake of plausible deniability, there are so many telltale signs that this politician is, at least partly, built on Trump, or a Trump-esque figure. One of the first images that we see of Ruffalo’s character is of him with a long and noticeably red tie. We see followers of his, or supporters, that wear noticeably red headwear (some with a political slogan written on them). Marshall is also repeatedly shown to be espousing Christian traditions, even though he clearly sees the religion as more of a company that he is beholden to. Marshall also has an offensive and archaic view of women (he essentially sees women as ‘birthing machines’) and he has colonial ambitions (he dreams of taking a snowy territory by any means necessary). Then there’s Ruffalo’s deliberately exaggerated depiction of the character which, on occasion, is Trump-esque. Frankly, I think you could even argue that Toni Collette’s sauce-intrigued character, a constant voice in the ear of Ruffalo’s character, is part Tilda Swinton in Okja and part Kellyanne Conway. Given that it was made in 2022, it has even proved to be eerily prophetic given the specific outcome of an assassination attempt in the film and Trump’s repeated interest in a snowy territory (i.e. Greenland). As such, if you buy into that reading, it isn’t exactly a piece of fantastical escapism, but the satire of it all does make it a fun experience, and I could feel my audience get a lot out of Bong’s attempt at satire.
The goofy, hammy tone of the main performances will take some getting used to for some audiences, but I thought the film got the most out of its most wacky characters. This is also true of Robert Pattinson’s lead performance, which has him put on some curious performance and accent-work that was supposedly both inspired by Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber and Steve-O. It is an odd blend, but Pattinson is such a dedicated actor that he somehow makes it work. His dual performances, primarily as Mickey 17 and Mickey 18, allow him to explore different facets both with regards to the accent, with one being more gruff, and with regards to level of confidence, with one being skittish and one being confident. His character-work helps to sell one of Bong’s secondary focal points, which is to emphasize different aspects of our personality and perhaps to express that sometimes it would be hugely beneficial to have a real heart to heart with yourself to learn that you shouldn’t beat yourself up about things that are out of your control.
In addition to being supported by Ruffalo and Collette, but also strong sci-fi production design, an extremely freaky but still somehow adorable creature design, and solid visual effects, Pattinson is also supported by actors like Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, and Anamaria Vartolomei, all of whom occasionally make positive impressions. However, it should be said that both Yeun and Vartolomei’s characters feel slightly underwritten. Naomi Ackie, though, is something akin to a secret weapon for the film. Ackie has turned in a lovable and excitable performance with an energy that is constantly infectious.
I will say, though, that not everything fully worked for me on my first viewing. On a macro-level, I thought that it had odd pacing that made the overall film feel rather long. I also think that the sequencing of scenes in both the beginning and the ending can feel a little bit strange. There is, arguably, also some fat to be trimmed that may indicate that there was a relatively longer cut at one point, as certain subplots aren’t fully realized. Nonetheless, I found this to be a very entertaining film.
Because his filmography is filled with so much great cinema, this isn’t likely to be remembered as one of his absolute best films. Still, Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 will be catnip to die-hard Bong fans and aficionados, but I can also understand if it will be confounding to viewers that aren’t trained to the more goofy tendencies that sometimes pop up in his oeuvre (e.g. Jake Gyllenhaal’s unforgettable performance in Okja). Personally, I found Mickey 17 to be a messy but fascinatingly timely and richly rewarding political satire and sci-fi flick that is, ultimately, strangely filling despite some hiccups along the way.
8 out of 10
– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 