The world knows filmmaker Bong Joon Ho for his genre-blending, commentary on social class, and exciting plot twists. Aside from the movie I’m about to discuss, Bong has directed the Oscar-sweeping Parasite (2019), Okja (2017), and at least fourteen other films (that I have not seen yet). Fans and casual enjoyers like me of this director were very excited when we all found out about his newest movie, Mickey 17, a sci-fi comedy starring Robert Pattinson and Naomi Ackie. One of my favorite actors, Steven Yeun, is also featured, along with Mark Ruffalo, Anamaria Vartolomei, and fan favorite Toni Collette. The film has some big names behind the production team, with the likes of Brad Pitt producing, and Jung Jae II, the composer additionally behind Bong’s Parasite (as well as Squid Game). The acting, especially that of Pattinson as Mickey 17, is the driving force behind the love for this movie.
On an icy planet in the far-off 2054, a space colony employs a man named Mickey to work as an “expendable:” the sole worker who dies onscreen with every experiment, be that poisonous gas, space radiation, incineration, and more, before being re-cloned. Mickey navigates his discomfort with death alongside the discovery of aliens, a tyrannical colony leader and his wife, a kind of bad friend, a romance, loan sharks, space drugs, the politics of “expendables,” and a wannabe-homewrecker. But his whole life changes forever when he is accidentally cloned while still alive…
Watching Mickey 17 in theaters was the greatest choice I could have made in my life. I advise you to watch this with friends as I did rather than with family, because there is a reason it has an R rating. It never gets TOO crazy in that regard, yet many reviewers on Letterboxd have noted that as unfortunate.
As much as I enjoyed my Mickey 17 experience, I still looked into critical reviews. But honestly, with every negative review I read and video I clicked on, I found myself more and more grounded in my appreciation for the movie, even with a very open mind to critique. This makes the film near-perfect for what it sought to do, in my head. I understand that some had a distaste for how random the genres seemed together. However, that critique comes from pretentious film bros who claim to worship Bong Joon Ho as a god to get with girls yet can’t look away from their own glorious, blank LinkedIn page when a good scene is playing. Even if you have barely seen Bong’s movies, as I have, it is so clear that the director has made his name in genre mixing and blending. Fake fans are everywhere for the eye to see.
Remember to catch this movie when it’s released for streaming! Who’s your favorite Mickey?
