When the audience first meets Mickey, he has already died 16 times.
Cartoonishly horrifying, “Mickey 17” is the latest project from director and screenwriter Bong Joon Ho, following his Oscar-sweeping masterpiece “Parasite.”
Taking place in an eerily — or perhaps overly — familiar world, “Mickey 17” follows Micky Barnes, portrayed by Robert Pattinson, a disposable employee on a human expedition to colonize the snowy-white planet of Niflheim. The mission is led by failed-congressman-turned-cult-leader Kenneth Marshall, portrayed by Mark Ruffalo.
Mickey’s job is simple: Die. Repeatedly. In the name of science, mission success, or convenience.
At the end of each life, his body is dumped into an incinerator, reprinted with human printing technology, and he is reborn with memories intact, ready to be marched back to the guillotine at the earliest convenience. Rise and repeat.
While these deaths are doled out humorously, they remain horribly disturbing and are made only more sympathetic by Pattinson’s excellent portrayal of Mickey, a hapless, lovable sort of idiot.
Mickey signed up for the position without reading the job description — a desperate attempt to escape Earth after a failed business venture as a pastry chef left him in crippling debt to a sociopath with a tendency to collect his dues with a chainsaw.
Pattinson truly gives a phenomenal performance. Mickey 17 could not be further from the English-price version of Pattinson often conceptualized by the media. The 17th iteration of Mickey is meek and defeated, with a child-like pliability. Throughout his portrayal, Pattinson shrinks through scenes, wounded, avoiding eye contact, and employing a reedy, upper-midwestern accent.
This characterization becomes even more impressive when Mickey 18 gets printed while 17 is still alive, resulting in a case of illegal multiples. If discovered, it would lead to both of their deaths and the permanent demise of Mickey Barnes.
Mickey 18, however, is neither mild-mannered nor tractable, and Pattinson puts on an impressive show swinging between 17’s twitchy obedience and 18’s borderline sociopathic rebellion.
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Ruffalo’s portrayal of Kenneth Marshall, on the other hand, takes “extreme” in a different direction. The colony leader’s similarities to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and prominent public figures are about as subtle a sledgehammer to the forehead.
Marshall and his wife Ylfa, played by Toni Collette, dream of creating a “planet of purity.” Marshall is quickly revealed as an exploitative megalomaniac authoritarian, backed up by Ylfa, the materialistic, self-serving brain behind his leadership.
Ruffalo spends the movie mirroring Trump’s characteristic mannerisms and nasally non-sequiturs, disputing the results of a lost election, and bearing truly horse-ish veneers at fanatic acolytes sporting red hats.
Whether these similarities help deliver the urgency of this movie’s message on today’s world or take the viewer out of the world is debatable. I personally found it to be distracting, changing the tone of the movie drastically as Marshall becomes more central to the story and removing me from the immersive empathy and humanity Mickey’s story evokes.
Ultimately, while the film’s heavy-handed political satire may occasionally detract from its emotional core, it is as ridiculous as it is deliberate. Bong Joon Ho crafts a relevant, thought-provoking, and entertaining film, leaving viewers to reflect on the absurdity and exploitation of our own world.