Are awards any indication of overall talent? Or are they signs of possible longevity? To paraphrase a line from Frasier; if you can look in the mirror and say you put in the best effort, then let the awards go wherever. It is hard to say, after this last Oscar ceremony, if actors like Mikey Madison will live up to the hype of Anora. But for Best Director winner Bong Joon-ho, there has been a filmography to back up his rise. And what a weird ride it has been, none so weird as Mickey 17.
Based on the novel by Edward Ashton, Robert Pattinson plays our title character. As you can surmise, there has been seventeen in total. But how can that be? Well, in a long explanation dump taking up the first part of the film, voice-over explains how Mickey came to be on this space station and his role on the ship to be a guinea pig for various experiments. A process in which his DNA has been extracted and his memories downloaded so he can be regenerated from scratch like a carbon copy (literally) from an MRI-shaped printer.
Pattinson’s dim-witted demeanor instantly brings us into his inner world, the thoughts and feelings that fuel his self. His comic timing makes Mickey both an object of ridicule and political punching bag for the rest of the crew. All the while his quiet and tender nature makes us sympathize with his plight even more based how others in this world react and abuse him. He just wants to cooperate and not rock the boat too much. Until there is a mix-up and the latest survives his recent brush with death and there is a Mickey 18 running around as well. The actor is able to give subtle characterization to each iteration, without sacrificing what makes Mickey himself. Besides, there is enough harm brought to his well-being to go around.
For viewers going into this film, I will warn you that expecting the wild yet grounded worlds of Parasite or Memories of Murder will be at their peril. Here we are squarely in Bong’s mode of science fiction that is surreal as it is allegorical. Fans of Snowpiercer (and its television adaptation) as well as Netflix’s Okja will not be caught off guard by multiple crazy turns in the two hour and seventeen-minute runtime. It was shocking to see that the creatures that inhabit the planet (and take up the last third of the film) were not a wholly-owned creation in the director’s brain. For myself, I can’t say I wasn’t entertained throughout by this insane plot and game cast.
Mark Ruffalo is back in wacky mode as a blowhard politician looking to make his name among this future colony. Not since his nominated turn in Poor Things have I seen him more lively and energetically eating scenery for breakfast. Matched in set nibbling, Toni Collette shows us why she is our national treasure in these supporting yet standout roles as Ruffalo’s wife and sauce connoisseur. Clear from the get-go, these two are meant to skewer elite classes which has been the backbone of Bong’s oeuvre. His pen and lens become a funhouse mirror of our world, taking the parallels to their dystopian zenith. The vanity of the rich, exploitation of the working class, the unethical treatment of other cultures and species; his preoccupations are all here and dialed to eleven.
But something is missing in the mixture. A few too many ingredients have spoiled the overall flavor which makes for an uneven meal. One wonders if the studio required some assurances that audiences needed some over-explanation in the narrative. In that aforementioned info dump, we get a sidebar about one of the unscrupulous copy machine inventors that’s as clunky as this sentence demonstrates. However, later in a dream sequence, a more elegant reinstatement takes place. My note to Warner Bros: I don’t need to be spoon-fed. I am perfectly capable at discerning the chef’s nuances for myself.
