Movie Review: Mickey 17

Fleeing from a loan shark on Earth, Mickey (Robert Pattinson) and his very self-absorbed “friend” Timo (Steven Yeun) manage to get themselves aboard a colony spaceship that is headed for the planet Niflheim. While Timo managed to get on as a shuttle pilot, despite having no real skills to speak of, Mickey enrolled as an “Expendable” without fully understanding what that means. Using technology that had been banned on Earth, the ship’s scientists are able to use him for various, frequently lethal experiments and then reprint him after he dies, memories and all.

One day, Mickey 17 tumbles into a crevice on Nilfheim and is presumed dead, so the ship prints out Mickey 18. But 17 actually survives and makes his way back to the ship, meaning that he and 18 are now “Multiples”, a situation that is strictly forbidden and if discovered would lead to the immediate termination of both as well as the destruction of the backup data. Neither wants to die and so they wind up being forced to work together, along with girlfriend Nasha (Naomi Ackie), who is surprisingly pleased by this development. The two Mickey’s have very different personalities however, and 18 finds himself determined to exact revenge on Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), the arrogantly inept leader of the expedition, and his cruelly out of touch wife Ylfa (Toni Collette).

Patterson kills it in the main role(s). Mickey 17 is sweetly naive and meek, much like the glimpses we see of his predecessors, but 18 has a deep well of rage seething within him that constantly threatens to burst forth, and Patterson is utterly convincing as both, creating two characters that are immediately distinguishable despite appearing identical. Subplots involving the side characters don’t really develop outside of how they move the Mickeys’ story forward, but they are still portrayed well by their respective cast members, though those who don’t love Ruffalo’s recent penchant for oddly-accented, arrogant jerks should be forewarned that he is fully in that mode here.

The style and tone of Mickey 17 will be immediately recognizable to fans of director Bong Joon-ho. His script (based on the novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton) has bursts of his sweetly odd humor, though this movie is not as obviously comedic as the trailers would lead you to believe. Several of Joon-ho’s favorite themes are present, especially his scathingly critical view of oligarchical fascism. Much of the satire is pretty on-the-nose (he claims that no one is based on any actual figures, but the Marshall supporters’ love of red hats calls that claim into doubt), but that doesn’t rob it of its impact.

Mickey 17 won’t go down as one of Bong Joon-ho’s best films, but that is a very high bar to clear, and even his lesser works are lightyears better than most of what hits cinemas. If you’re inclined to enjoy beautifully crafted, oddball, unsubtle, auteur-driven movies that take surprisingly deep and moving looks at precisely what it is that makes us ourselves, then you can’t go wrong giving this a watch. ★★★★