MICKEY 17
(director/writer: Bong Joon Ho; screenwriter: based on the novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton; cinematographer: Darius Khondji; editor: Jinmo Yang; music: Jung Jae-il; cast: Robert Pattinson (Mickey Barnes), Naomi Ackie (Nasha), Steven Yeun (Tumo), Toni Collette (Yifa), Mark Ruffalo (Kenneth Marshall), Anamaria Vartolomei (Kai Katz), Daniel Henshall (Preston), Cameron Britton (Arkady), Patsy Ferran (Dorothy), Michael Monroe (Matthew), Tim Key (Pigeon Man), Lioyd Hutchinson (Underboss), Ian Hanmore (Darius Blank), Ellen Robertson (Jennifer Chilton), Haydn Gwynne (Congresswoman); Runtime: 137; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner, Bong Joon Ho; Warner Bros.; 2025-S.Korea/USA)
“Strangely exciting but uneven and overlong sci-fi film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Celebrated South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”/”Okja”) directs and writes this strangely exciting but uneven and overlong sci-fi film. It’s based on the 2022 novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton, and plays out as a dark comedy parable on dying.
An injured Mickey (Robert Pattinson) awakens in 2054, stuck in a frozen cranny on the snow and ice of the remote Planet Niflheim (a colony run by the slimy loser American senator Kenneth Marshall-Mark Ruffalo, married to Yifa-Toni Collette). Mickey has been reprinted or cloned–which for him is 16 times. This comes after volunteering to be an “expendable:” an astronaut willing to die with his memories intact, as he takes on dangerous jobs while transporting colonists from the uninhabitable Earth. The good part of his gig is that he will be reprinted forever. Mickey has taken the astronaut gig to avoid paying the ultimate price for his debts on Earth to a ruthless loanshark.
Mickey’s untrustworthy buddy Timo (Steven Yuen) lands his spaceship on Niflheim, but does nothing to the creepy creatures who want to eat the dying Mickey as they crawl all over him.
A flashback alerts us that Mickey and Timo escaped from earth on a four-year journey to Niflheim to escape the vengeful loan-shark.
Mickey, while on Niflheim, meets and falls in love with Nasha (Naomi Ackie), which eases his personal agony.
Pattinson’s spacey performance is out of this world. The atmospheric ice tundra and the noteworthy facial shots by DP Darius Khondjiare are striking. As is its commendable social message that all creatures deserve compassion for their struggle.
It played at the Berlin Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 2/22/2025 GRADE: B
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