It was never going to be easy following “Parasite’s” four-Oscar win, but if there was any director who isn’t afraid of being trapped in that shadow, it’s probably Bong Joon Ho. His knack for social commentary and genre-blending flair have shown across his career far before “Parasite,” and Bong’s wry new effort, “Mickey 17,” continues his innovative filmography with his pivot into sci-fi.
Adapted from Edward Ashton’s novel “Mickey7,” “Mickey 17” follows its titular protagonist (Robert Pattinson), an Expendable hired to carry out lethal work on the icy planet Niflheim by a failed politician but is cloned after his every death. After being left for dead on his 17th go-around, Mickey survives unforeseen circumstances before coming face-to-face with his replacement. “Multiples” of the same person are punishable by very real death, hence “Mickey 17” — which launches into all the zany doppelgänger-related quandaries as the two clash over who gets to live.
It’s only appropriate that “Mickey 17” draws from the headier concepts of its source material, even though the film breezes past the book’s bigger questions about identity and clone labor. However, it more than compensates by being an insanely funny watch, in no small part due to Pattinson having the time of his life — or lives — as Mickey 17. Putting on another quirky accent for 17, an endearing doormat who’s in denial from his deaths, he also pulls double duty as the hotheaded Mickey 18 in a delightful contrast to 17’s personification of a timid wet cat.
Beyond Pattinson’s endlessly comical dynamic with himself, he takes the brunt of the film’s gallows-esque humor, such as a scene where a still-alive yet unperturbed clone is thrown to his incineration. The film wrings this borderline-slapstick for all its worth, namely in the repeated image of each new clone sliding out of a futuristic printer — complete with jams. As entertaining as the individual moments are, Bong brings a clear pathos to Mickey’s predicament, as his careless treatment hammers home his world-weary self-pity amid their dehumanization.
The rest of the cast adds to the film’s perfectly offbeat tone in excellent fashion. Steven Yeun livens up every scene he’s in as Mickey’s delightfully sleazy business partner Timo, and Naomi Ackie’s Nasha embodies the film’s balance of screwball comedy with its cutting satire. Introduced as one of the only people on the ship who sees Mickey as a person, Ackie brings a near-unmatched energy to her role, pivoting from her gleeful reaction to having two Mickeys to imbuing the film with much of its brimming, righteous anger in the second half.
Other times, Bong throws subtlety to the frigid wind of Niflheim in some downright farcical sequences, many of which involve despotic politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his snide, sauce-obsessed wife Ylfa (Toni Collette). Although the film was shot throughout late 2022, with Bong maintaining that it was envisioned with no clear real-world analogues, Ruffalo’s mannerisms are pompous and enunciation blustering. He makes for an almost-distracting yet entertainingly hateable pair with Collette.
It’s unsurprising that “Mickey 17” is decidedly tactless compared to the meticulous atmosphere and ambiguity of “Parasite,” as shown by its blatant skewering of religious fanaticism and xenophobia through Western burlesques. Despite the occasional tonal whiplash and fast pacing — the lead-up to its sprawling third act could have used a little more breathing room — the pace works to the film’s benefit, especially with the “Starship Troopers” feel that permeates its eclectic flavor of satire.
With that in mind, it’s clear that Bong’s focus on social issues like class stratification hasn’t remotely dimmed. Rows of off-world emigrants line a spiraling walkway, and the grubby “creepers” swarm around the humans’ ship just as the Mickeys rebel against their oppressors. It’s a fully obvious visual metaphor for strength in numbers, but Bong elegantly weaves these images between 17’s arc of standing up for himself with the help of 18 and the people around him. The production design is also consistently top-notch, as Bong makes the most of juxtaposing claustrophobic, metallic interiors with glacial expanses.
Similarly, there’s more than enough traces of Bong’s prior works to be found in “Mickey 17’s” DNA — the wintry used-future aesthetic of “Snowpiercer” and “Okja’s” melancholy animal-rights tale instantly come to mind, and it’s got no shortage of the unapologetically anti-capitalist ardor that underpins those films either. However, ending on a broader message of acceptance through a pulpy yet no-less-relevant sci-fi lens, it’s also a refreshingly optimistic piece of work for Bong. As a result, “Mickey 17” is a more-than-worthy addition to Bong’s repertoire, simultaneously excelling at the genre of fiction it’s adapting while sacrificing none of his usual wit and import. It also helps that it’s established that one Pattinson just isn’t enough.
Contact Kaleo Zhu at [email protected].