Mickey 17

April 18 – 22

7 pm
1:30 pm Sunday Matinée

SciFi / Thriller
Rated 14A – 2h 11m

Mickey 17 is an absurdist, anti-capitalist, Trump-mocking masterpiece. Bong Joon-ho, the Oscar winner behind Parasite, somehow convinced Warner Bros to finance a costly sci-fi epic about the plight of the working class – and led by an actor doing one of his trademark silly voices. He shattered the one-inch wall (that little strip of subtitles Hollywood has always seemed so averse to) when Parasite became the first ever foreign-language winner of the best picture Oscar in 2020. With his third English-language feature, the South Korean auteur explores some of the same themes of the previous two, Okja and Snowpiercer: gaping economic disparities, humanity’s destruction of the planet and the dangers of authoritarianism.

These topics are sadly more relevant than ever given the right-wing ideology that’s swept across the globe in recent years, and he depicts them with his signature high style and brash satire. And the main stand-out of the plot (multiple Robert Pattinsons) is surely a winner. His performance is so gonzo, so gleefully deranged, that he keeps you hanging on and hoping he’ll succeed in a variety of incarnations. Starring in a Bong Joon Ho film is another example of the inspired choices Pattinson has made post-Twilight, whether he’s working with indie greats like Claire Denis, Robert Eggers and David Cronenberg or bringing his angular emo presence to Matt Reeves’ darkly artful The Batman. You can see why he’d be drawn to this role: It allows him to get a little goofy while showing a ton of range.

Based on the 2022 sci-fi novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, Mickey 17 follows the masochistic misadventures of Pattinson’s titular character. He is an “Expendable” on a faraway ice planet 30 years in the future. The hapless Mickey has signed up (without actually reading the fine print) to die repeatedly, only to be reprinted in his own body with his own memories. His job is to run interference for the colonizers of this brave new world, whether it’s breathing potentially toxic air or testing experimental vaccines. Whatever violent end he meets, he figures it’s better than the threats that were in store for him from gangsters back on Earth. The montage of him dying and being reborn represents the sweet spot for Bong with its mix of dark humor and brisk pacing. For all the cruelty and buffoonery that might surround his hero, Bong lets us in on a revelation: what we’re really watching is a man learning that it’s OK for him to be happy.