After Parasite, it’s hard not to see the South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho as anything other than one of the most exciting voices working in film today. Being the South Korean auteur’s first film made on a massive scale for a major studio, Mickey 17 perhaps may come out a bit more like a lighter fare in comparison to Bong’s preceding film. That’s not a bad thing, though. With Bong Joon Ho, you could only ever find yourself expecting a fun ride from beginning to end even while the social subtext is there, yet he’s not even making any attempts at being subtle whatsoever. In fact, Mickey 17 might be the least subtle movie that Bong Joon Ho has made thus far, but Bong Joon Ho has never been a filmmaker we watch for subtlety.
Robert Pattinson stars as Mickey Barnes, an “expendable” employee in the human colony on Niflheim. As an expendable, he’s always sent out on deadly missions that often result in his death, but every time he dies, he comes back via a cloned body where he retains his own consciousness. Because he’s often seen as disposable by his own employers, it just so happens that a slight error might only lead into some very funny consequences for everyone on this colony. Being his seventeenth iteration, hence the film’s title, Mickey might just realize that this particular line of work may not exactly be what it’s all cracked up to be – from that alone, it’s pretty easy to see why this particular premise would appeal greatly to Bong Joon Ho’s sensibilities.
Unlike the Edward Ashton novel upon which Mickey 17 is based, Mickey Barnes dies ten more times than he did in his original source. Perhaps that only feels like a very fitting way to go for Bong Joon Ho’s take on the same material, given that capitalism constantly wears out those who work within such an oppressive system to the point of rendering all their employees into nothing more than mere “Mickeys” to be sent out, killed, and reprinted. But in Bong Joon Ho’s eyes, this system is so much more vicious to the point that Mickey could not reasonably be killed only seven times. It makes for something much funnier, but much darker underneath. Bong utilizes the horrifying implications of its premise to present an indictment on those same systems that view their own employees as disposable while the rich higher-ups only fill their pockets more.
That Bong Joon Ho isn’t aiming for subtlety with his satire calls back to the films of Terry Gilliam and Paul Verhoeven. Much like said films, Bong Joon Ho is opting for silliness wherever possible, but the real world parallels are incredibly obvious the moment you see them, to the point of having a villainous politician played by Mark Ruffalo echoing Donald Trump or Elon Musk. Ruffalo is having so much fun taking a clear shot at such people within this context, even though it ultimately ends up becoming a very one-note character the more he’s doing the voice and the mannerisms of Donald Trump. There’s not really a whole lot else one can pull out from such a character, even while Ruffalo’s having the time of his life and Toni Collette is there to aid him.
Robert Pattinson might be the most surprising turn out of the entire cast that Bong Joon Ho has brought forward in Mickey 17, owing to his own comedic timing. He’s having the time of his life in his role, playing the dual roles of Mickey Barnes’s seventeenth and eighteenth iterations – perhaps it might only fit that he’s not playing each iteration as one in the same character despite the film’s premise that ends up working in the film’s favour. The seventeenth iteration, which is the one whom we’re spending the most time with, is played so meek and earnest, whereas the eighteenth is always in psycho mode: Pattinson’s skills come forth in making sure they’re not just the same character but part of the horrifying aftereffects that this completely numbing work life can turn him into.
Bong Joon Ho’s no stranger to being great with directing actors: there’s still a whole lot to love about Naomi Ackie’s own turn as Nasha, who’s the girlfriend of Mickey. With knowing the consequence of two different iterations of Mickey Barnes existing, Bong allows her to become a more complex character entirely than just the simple love interest for one iteration of Mickey. She’s having a lot of fun, but I think that if there’s anyone else here who ends up stealing the show within this very stacked cast, it’s Anamaria Vartolomei – playing a femme fatale of sorts to one Mickey, while also trying to be the voice of reason as this whole situation is becoming more absurd.
Given the fact that Bong Joon Ho is working on a much larger budget than his anything he has worked on prior, perhaps that’s also where you get the sense Mickey 17 might be a bit more lofty than expected. It’s not the same sort of ambitions that brought Parasite to the level of brilliance that said film has achieved so flawlessly, but this also leaves one wondering if the language barrier might have held him back from achieving the same sort of success. When we’re introduced to what brought Mickey into this world, you’re under the impression that his own best friend Timo, portrayed by Steven Yeun, would end up having a much larger role. Once in a while, a thread like that comes in and suddenly goes, and thus the shifts in tone don’t always work. This weakness comes into place once the monsters known as the creepers play a much larger role in the film’s climactic moments.
Don’t come into Mickey 17 expecting that Bong Joon Ho made something like Parasite all over again. In fact, you might find that Mickey 17 shares a whole lot in common with Okja. It’s a whole lot more lofty with its own ambitions compared to the likes of Bong Joon Ho’s previous English-language features, but even then I think that the possible language barrier between English and Korean didn’t feel as much of an obstacle to the successes of Snowpiercer or Okja. Bong Joon Ho working in a mode that wants to emulate Terry Gilliam in Mickey 17, and it’s always fun to watch. Despite my qualms, I still think there’s enough evidence in Mickey 17 to reaffirm Bong Joon Ho as one of the best working contemporary filmmakers.
Watch the trailer right here.
All images via Warner Bros. Discovery.
Directed by Bong Joon Ho
Screenplay by Bong Joon Ho, from the novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
Produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bong Joon Ho, Dooho Choi
Starring Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Park, Anamaria Vartolomei, Patsy Ferran, Cameron Britton
Premiere Date: February 15, 2025
Running Time: 137 minutes
Cinema from the Spectrum 
Leave a comment