Mickey 17 Review: Uneven but undeniably entertaining

PLOT: In the future, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), who’s in debt to loansharks, takes the one job no one could ever possibly want. He signs up to be an “expendable” on an off-world colony where he’s given hazardous tasks to perform that no one is expected to survive. Every time he dies, they“print” another copy of him. However, when his seventeenth iteration, Mickey 17, unexpectedly survives a mission, he discovers another version, Mickey 18, has already been printed, and in this society, multiples are expressly outlawed.

REVIEW: One has to give Warner Bros some degree of credit for green-lighting Mickey 17. Easily the most lavish movie of director Bong Joon-ho’s career, it’s the kind of original, audacious sci-fi we rarely see on the big screen anymore. The fact that it doesn’t entirely work is almost beside the point, as stuff like this so rarely gets made; the fact that it’s getting released at all feels like some kind of a miracle. However, it also can’t be denied that this uneven, bizarre film seems more likely destined for cult status than mainstream success. 

Bong Joon-ho, while undeniably brilliant, has a more mixed record when it comes to English language films than his more acclaimed Korean work. Snowpiercer is a gem, but Okja, for me anyway, was a mess, containing one of the most grating, scenery-chewing performances I’ve ever seen, courtesy of star Jake Gyllenhaal. Bong’s work is never subtle, with Mickey 17 jam-packed with camp performances that, at times, seem like they’re more fun for the actor doing them than the audience watching them.

This is especially true of Mark Ruffalo, whose Kenneth Marshall is presented as a space-bound version of Donald Trump. While WB’s been saying no one is based on any current politician, that’s nonsense, with Ruffalo directly channelling the way he talks and all his adherents wearing red hats. The fact that he’s presented as a genocidal space despot will certainly ruffle some feathers, but one can’t deny the notion to make him such a clear-cut Trump analogue was a deliberate choice. His performance is grating, in the same way Gyllenhaal’s was in Okja, in that I never felt like I was watching anything more than a caricature. Toni Collette fares somewhat better as his even more psychopathic wife, who gleefully collects the tails of the baby aliens discovered on their off-world colony to make “the perfect sauce.”

Yet, as grating as some of the performances can be, Robert Pattinson knocks it out of the park as the various printings of Mickey Barnes. Sounding an awful lot like Steve Buscemi, he delivers a classic semi-comic performance that’s laced with pathos, in the way classic comedians like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd (and later Stan Laurel) used to do in another era. His Mickey 17 is none-too-bright but possesses a good heart, which is perfectly contrasted by the edgier, perhaps even psychopathic Mickey 18, whose aggression levels have been taken up a few notches but learns a bit of humanity as the film progresses.

Pattinson’s performance is what makes Mickey 17 work as well as it does, because narratively, the film is something of a mess. Bong Joon-ho’s been tinkering with it in the editing room for a while, and it feels like it’s been cut to the bone (despite running a lengthy 137 minutes). Characters like Steven Yeun’s slimy pilot, Timo, drop in and out, with them barely registering, while Mickey’s love interest, Naomi Ackie’s security agent Nasha, has inexplicable personality shifts, with her coming across as almost insane in certain moments, but then selfless and heroic in others. She nevertheless mostly makes the character work (she’s a terrific actress – with her especially good in the recent Blink Twice), but again, it feels like there’s another version of this movie on a hard drive somewhere where the character makes more sense.

Visually, the film is stunning, with Darius Khondji’s cinematography especially impressive if you see this on an IMAX screen. The production design is terrific, although the insect-style aliens encountered by the various Mickey’s called “Creepers” look as fake as the title character did in Okja. 

Indeed, Mickey 17 is all over the place in terms of quality. It’s one of the few recent films where I went back and forth between thinking it was a disaster and a masterpiece over and over again – sometimes in the same scene, depending on who was being showcased. Some of it is grating – some of it is superb. It doesn’t really work as a whole, but you know what? I’m glad it exists. 

Mickey 17

GOOD

7

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