![Mickey 17 is a Bonkers, Charmingly Absurd Defense of the Value of Life [Review]](https://thathashtagshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/5f3adf85-f96e-4f3c-ac2c-5c97c739c328-1280x640.jpg)
After Parasite took the globe and the Academy by storm, the cinematic world was director Bong Joon-ho’s oyster. He followed up on that excellent class-centric thriller with a surprising sci-fi comedy, Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson, a wild swing in equally critical but entirely novel directions, a none-too-surprising route for a director who has regularly broken new ground with genres and topics. It’s a wild, unique film that showcases much of the director’s considerable talents for tonal and thematic complexity, backed by Pattinson’s flexibility with unexpected roles. While the film does suffer a little with regard to pacing in the final act, it remains an engaging, entertaining film that flexes the skills of both Bong Joon-ho and Pattinson (weirdness meter set to 11, complimentary) while being sure to cement its status as one of the year’s most interesting films.
Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) is destitute. Timo (Steven Yeun), his “friend,” ropes him into a foolhardy plan that leaves the pair hopelessly in debt… Mickey a little disproportionately so. He signs up to be an “expendable” on the new colony planet Niflheim, a class of worker who undertake the deadliest jobs and are cloned after death time and time again. When a mission goes awry and Mickey 17 is left for dead, his survival surprises everyone, most of all himself and his new clone, Mickey 18. The only catch: the colony, lead by Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette) are dead set on enforcing strict rules that, upon discovery that there are ‘multiples’ of a clone, all clones are killed. The pair have to team up to stop the tyrant, both to save their lives and to prevent a possible apocalypse.
Pattinson Shows Off Being One of Our Most Exciting Working Actors
Bong Joon-ho boasts a number of strengths as a director, not least of which is his strong command of tone. In films like The Host and Parasite. there is a delicate balance on display. Scenes may be tense, comedic, romantic, horrific, or intellectually stimulating, sliding easily between tones or alternating effortlessly, sometimes in seconds. Mickey 17 is more consistently comedic than either of those entries, but it exhibits his skill at shifting the film’s feeling just the same.
As Mickey Barnes/17/18, Robert Pattinson delivers a skillful showcase of his range and comedic chops. The Mickey’s are tragic figures despite 17’s acceptance of a life of death, and the Mickeys we spend time with have notably distinct personas that Pattinson adeptly. 17 is a silly, somewhat scared little guy, while 18 is a cynical, angry sort, and these differences are well utilized and exceedingly well developed. It’s an exceptional turn from one of our most exciting performers.
Ruffalo is on a complex villain tear lately between his Poor Things outing and his turn as Marshall here. As the Trump-like Marshall, Ruffalo is ego and bluster and devoid of statesmanship, intellect, talent, or or skill. Sebastian Stan may have been Oscar-nominated for his role as Trump in The Apprentace, but Ruffalo takes the cake for the best Trump imitation of our era despite not technically being the POTUS who would be king. Naomi Ackie is a badass beam of love and light as Mickey’s steadfast love, Nasha, a force to reckon with in her own right. Yeun is also great in his return to collaboration with Director Bong, here a neer-do-well friend whose projected image is far afield from his reality. It’s an engaging cast throughout that universally embodies complicated characters in unique roles.
Pacing Issues Aside, Mickey 17 Boasts A Masterful Balance of Theme and Tone
Thematically, Mickey 17 is a beautiful tale about a lot of things packed into its 2-hour runtime. It’s about the perils of cloning, love, and the ills of space colonization, but foremost the film is about two things. First, it’s about the value of life, both regarding the ‘expendable’ Mickey and regarding an alien lifeform that’s discovered in the duration of the film. It’s a theme sharing some spiritual lineage with Okja, and it’s capably developed here. Second, Mickey 17 warns us about far-right authoritarianism (indirectly, but not subtly, about fascism).
The Trump-like Marshall emphasizes his desire to make a “pure” Niflheim, an icy world sharing a name with a realm from Norse mythology that contained the afterlife, Hel, for those dying unheroic deaths. Between his movement’s swastika-like logo, the ominous emphasis on creating a ‘pure’ colony, and the Eugenics-like emphasis on breeding superior colonists, the film is oddly timely despite its long gestation. These themes are well handled despite being variably subtle and competing with others, and it’s a smart film that works due to its packaging within comedic moments.
For the most part, the film boasts a breezy pace. Its biggest issue, perhaps, regards a notable slowdown in pace in the film’s final act. After the inclusion of Mickey 18, some subplots meander and don’t entirely build to a satisfying conclusion (like one subplot with someone uncontrollably attracted to the Mickeys). Certain scenes feel cut a little late, entered a little early, or slowed in pace overall, a feeling that’s amplified by uncertainty in the plot value of aforementioned scenes. The final act consequently feels a little long, a bit slow, though it ends in a satisfying way. Part of the issue, of course, is how high the bar is coming off the immaculately edited and paced Parasite, though the latter is a modern masterpiece (and a very different film).
Altogether, Mickey 17 is an excellent, complicated, but fun film from one of our most talented working directors. It’s wildly different from his Best Picture-winning phenom, Parasite, but echoes a number of elements of his earlier films. Like The Host, it has an irresponsible character coming face to face with monsters. As with Parasite, it deals with the devastating effects of impoverishment (and the things it causes poor folks to commit to). Like Okja, it makes you want to be kinder to animals. Like Mother, it has a strong woman willing to do anything for the decidedly less capable man she loves.
It’s a charming hodgepodge of ideas and elements that largely works thanks to a committed performance from Patterson and co. and backed by an excellent script, for a film that doesn’t quite reach the heights of its revolutionary predecessor but which showcases the director’s skill with unique, risky genre films. It’s a smart, critical, funny, batshit absurdist romp, and undoubtedly will prove one of 2025’s most innovative films.
Mickey 17 releases in theaters on March 7, 2025.
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