Skip to main content

Its Guys Like You Mickey


The title character of Mickey 17 is the 17th iteration of Mickey Barnes, a failed entrepreneur played by Robert Pattinson who has fled Earth (and a particularly unpleasant loan shark) by signing up to be an "expendable" on a voyage to colonise a new planet. This means he takes on all the most dangerous jobs and simply has his personality and memories uploaded to a newly printed body upon his inevitable death. By the time we meet him, lying at the bottom of a frozen ravine waiting to die, the four year space journey is over and and the ship's inhabitance are trying to get a foothold on the frozen hellscape of planet Niflheim. The first portion of the film sees Mickey recount the events that led to him being in such a situation, fleeing Earth after the collapse of his and dubious best friend Steven Yuen's macaron business, beeing manipulated into becoming an expendable, his relationship with security officer Nasha (Naomi Ackie) and the deaths of many of the proceeding Mickeys. The story then picks up with 17 returning to the ship to discover that, him being presumed dead, another Mickey has been printed. This is a bit of problem since the rules state that in the case of "multiples" both individuals are to be erased.

Mickey 17 has a lot going on. A lot. This is not director Bong Joon-Ho in the intricate sketching mode of Parasite, this is him cashing in his Oscar chips on a bold, big brush strokes sci fi concept movie. He makes the most of the budget with a grimy, industrial future setting and an atmospherically chilly alien world. If you are looking to liken things to the directors previous work, we are in the ballpark of "Snowpiercer" and "Okja", although this has more strings than either. The mixture of brutal space survival, high concepts and mad cap comedy  gives notes of cult sci fi show "Red Dwarf" and we even get a long panning shot of the ship exterior. 

The clone idea is the heart of the film and it asks interesting questions about accountability and cheapening of life. While some films treat cloning as a form of immortality, it is made clear here that death is death and shared memories don't make up for that. Mickey 18 is a very different person to the number before him. With that in mind, the whole endeavour becomes fairly horrific and the blasé attitude to Mickey's various lives from other crew members is chilling. That director and cast are able to keep the laughs coming in such a bleak scenario is testament to the talent on display.

While the clones provide plenty of thematic material, there are other concepts on show that could be whole films of their own. This is a first contact movie with some not so positive or subtle ideas on colonialism and groovy alien lifeforms. Its a satire of cult politicians, there fanatic followers and shadowy corporate backers, with Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette putting in unhinged performances as religion espousing failed congressman (yes his supporters do wear red) Kenneth Marshall and his controlling, culinary obsessed wife Ylfa. There is also plenty of the biting class commentary you expect from a Bong Joon-Ho movie. The denizens of the ship eat mush and have calorie limits, they aren't even supposed to have sex as it wastes energy, but are assured it will all lead to a life of plenty eventually. Meanwhile the Marshall's fine dine and dream of creating new sauces to prove their civility. Mickey himself is literally printed from the ship's recycled crap.

Pattinson's off kilter performance completely captures the blend of grim futurism and absurd comedy. The only thing more ridiculous than his haircut is his accent (which he tried to convince his non native English speaking director was a regular Pittsburgh drawl), as Mickey 17 stammers his way through one horrendous task after another. Then 18 arrives and is a different kettle of fish all together, aggressive almost to the point of being deranged, he wants to burn the whole thing down. For vocal inspiration Pattinson says he drew on wacky 90s cartoon "Ren and Stimpy" and that is a good indication of the vibe on display. Ackie is also great and her Nasha is more than just Mickey's love interest, she is his possessive protector and the more we learn about their relationship the more real it feels. It's this grounding relationship that allows some of the other cast to go completely off the deep end with their performances and not alienate the audience. 

It may be tempting to label Mickey 17 as overstuffed or claim Joon-Ho has bitten off more than he can chew but it is more accurate to say he has bitten off exactly the amount he can chew and is asking the audience to digest it with him. The film is certainly packed to the brim but surely that's to be lauded, not lambasted. It will be a long before we see another sci fi thinker given this kind of big budget shine.

9  genetically pure colonies out of 10.



 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Toxic Shock

  The Toxic Avenger ambles his way into theatres some two years after the film was first shown at festivals.  Strange that the movie had so much trouble finding a distributor given the presence of major names, relatively mainstream sensibilities (compared to the 80s original anyway) and the fact it's actually quite a bit of fun. Events take place in a fictional city inside a cartoonish, ultra-capitalist, crime-ridden caricature of 80s America, with locations called things like "Depressing Outskirts" and "Ye Olde Shithead District". Peter Dinklage is down on his luck janitor Winston Gooze, a widower with a step son who attempts to break into the headquarters of the mega-pharmaceutical company he works for when he discovers his gold level insurance doesn't cover treatment for his brain condition. Things go south and he is transformed into The Toxic Avenger, a mutated super human who sets about righting some wrongs in his crime ridden city. The film attempts t...

Love is a Battlefield

  The Roses is technically a remake of 1989 black comedy, "The War of the Roses", but sticks far less closely to the source novel than its predecessor, with director Jay Roach and writer Tony McNamara bringing a drier, more understated tone to the humour. Add in pitch-perfect performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman in the central roles and you have a fantastically fun hundred-odd minutes. After briefly seeing disillusioned architect Theo (Cumberbatch) and ambitious chef Ivy (Colman) first meet, the film skips us forward a decade to the now-married pair having abandoned their native UK to live their dream life in America. Theo is on the verge of revealing his architectural masterpiece while Ivy is cooking outrageously elaborate cakes in her role as stay-at-home mum to their two children. A freak storm ends up flipping their lives around and Ivy's chef career hits the big time while Theo holds down the fort at home and resentments slowly accumulate over th...

Weightwatchers Extreme

The Cut is a boxing movie with (apart from a brief opening sequence) no boxing in it. Instead it focuses  on the equally brutal, but less visibly part of the sport, weight loss, as a former contender spirals into madness while trying to shed an insane amount of heft in order to secure a last minute return to the big time. Orlando Bloom is a boxer (he is never named during the film) who lost his one title shot and now runs a gym with his partner and trainer Caitlin (Catriona Balfe). He retains a reputation for being an exciting knockout specialist so when a title contender dies weeks before an upcoming Las Vegas showdown, scary promoter Donny (Gary Beadle) offers him the chance of a glamorous comeback. The catch? He needs to shed thirty two pounds (over two stone or fourteen kilos) in a week. Caitlin agrees to him giving it a go provided they do things by the book, but when traditional methods fail, John Turturro's Boz enters the equation and pushes Bloom way beyond the bounds of w...

Honey Doesn't

Honey Don't is the second film from the director/writer team-up of Ethan (one half of the brothers) Coen and his wife Tricia Cook. Like their previous effort, "Drive Away Dolls", it is wonderfully queer but lacks any of the sharpness and precise pacing that typifies a classic Coen brothers movie. Margaret Qualley is Honey O'Donahue (a name you will hear spoken a LOT over the course of the film), a private investigator in Bakersfield. She is essentially a classic noir gumshoe detective transported to sun-bleached, modern-day California. After a would-be-client dies, Honey begins an investigation that has her cross paths with Chris Evans's skeezy preacher and the mysterious French woman who represents his business partners. She is also attempting to provide support to her sister, who has a small army of children, including an eldest daughter who she is constantly at loggerheads with. All while working her way through the lesbian population of town, including embarki...

We are Living in a Material World

 Materialists is, on the surface, a romantic drama-comedy about a New York matchmaker who faces a choice in her own love life. It has something more on its mind though, presenting a forensic examination of modern adult relationships and the incompatibility of expectation and genuine feeling.  Dakota Johnson is Lucy, a specialist in matching together "elite" couples. For elite, read some of the worst people on Earth. Men who demand their partners have knockout bodies, adhere to strict weight limits and the younger the better. Women who will only consider the tall, rich and in one case, white. In Lucy's world marriage is a business deal and the ultimate match is the one who checks the most boxes. As a "voluntary celibate", she carries this philosophy into here every day life and has no interest in dating until she can find the rich man who will make husband material. The love cynic is a classic trope for the lead in a movie with this set up but there is much more...

Won't Somebody Think of the Children

  Weapons is the sophomore effort from writer/director Zach Craggier and while his first film, "Barbarian", was well received, this feels like a clear step up. The film's fantastically eerie marketing campaign revolved around the movies central mystery, at 2.17 AM an entire classrooms worth of sixth graders get up out of bed and disappear into the night. It's a great hook but the story proper actually picks up a couple of months after the event and unfolds over a couple of days as the townspeople continue to deal with the fallout. The point of view shifts between a bunch of characters and time and space is given to fleshing out the small town details. This approach, combined with the sombre and eventually horrific goings on, gives the story a very Stephen King feel. It also works as a tension release, wiping the slate somewhat clean every time we switch perspective. The slight downside to the condensed mini series approach is that it lengthens the film with some segm...

Money and Masks

The challenge for Dumb Money is how to make a story about stocks interesting, especially when anyone interested either already knows what happened or can easily look up the events. The answer given here is to focus on some great characters played by grade A actors.  The story is a simple one, albeit one seasoned with odd bit of financial jargon. Way back in pandemic times (2021) a low rung financial investor called Keith Gill led a Reddit driven movement to buy up stock in video game retail chain Gamestop, massively driving up its share price and giving investors a huge return. This sparks a backlash from the big finance institutions betting on the companies demise. Paul Dano plays Gill with Seth Rogan, Vincent D'Onofrio and Nick Offerman appearing as real life Wall Street investors alongside some made up "average Joe" characters portrayed by America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos and others. When every character is introduced we see their net worth, from the multiple billions ...

I Got Bombs But I'm Not a Bomber

 Oppenheimer posed a tricky question for perennial hit maker Christopher Nolan. How do you make a three hour biopic of a scientist compelling enough to bring in big money? Turns out the answer is to not make a biopic at all. While J. Robert Oppenheimer is indeed the focus of the film it eschews any traditional biopic format, instead serving up what is essentially a heist or even sports movie wrapped up in a courtroom drama. This allows the director to indulge his favourite hobby of playing with time, as the story jumps between two different panel hearings  while also covering Oppenheimer's early career and of course the work of the Manhattan Project. This approach works incredibly well with the three hour runtime flying by. In fact, if you go to see this in the cinema you might want to skip the large cola as there really isn't any time when little enough is happening to sneak in a toilet brake.  Technically the film is outstanding. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, follo...

2023 at the Cinema

  Its the start of a new year which means it's time to put some movies in their place. This is not a definitive list of the best films of 2023, only things I saw in the cinema are eligible (sorry Killers of the Flower Moon) so if you're wondering why your favourite/most hated flick isn't on here it's because I didn't see it on the big screen. Also, I reserve the right to have a completely different opinion about any and all of the entries in a weeks time. 50. The Enforcer Tedious, no action "thriller" about a criminal debt collector and his trainee street tough. Not sure if this snoozefest began with aspirations of being a no nonsense Taken clone or a serious redemption story but a plot driven by coincidence, awful dialogue and a 99 cents aesthetic make it feel like something from the depths of Amazon Prime rather than a cinema release. No idea how they wrangled Antonio Banderas into appearing in such a damp squib. 49. Saw X  After attempting a detective m...

Dressed for Fun

The Naked Gun is a legacy sequel to the mad cap comedy franchise of the late 80's/ early 90's, with Liam Neeson playing Frank Drebin Jr, son of the legendary Leslie Neilson's detective from the original movies. Is big Liam quite as good at deadpan hilarity as Neilson was? Possibly not. Does this film ever completely match the highs of its predecessors? Probably not. Is it still very funny? Absolutely.  The film arrives amid a cinematic landscape devoid of out of and out comedies, with laughs mostly relegated to one liners in action films or the silly sidekick in a romcom. Fortunately, from the moment a Girl Scout peels off her face to reveal a gurning Neilson, right through to a joke filled credits roll, The Naked Gun is interested solely in making you chuckle. Sure, there is a plot, involving a mcguffin literally named PLOT device and an evil tech mogul, played with deliciously deadpan malice by Danny Huston, but it's all about the gags. The comedy runs the gamut from ...