In our unfortunate world where the mere inclusion of the word “diversity” on a form gets the funding of universities cut, where the mention of any POC or gender minority gets scrubbed from official records, and when the only innovation that has cross-market appeal is turning basic services into subscription-based models where you get less for more, establishing a space colony far from Earth doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. However, don’t think just because you’ve left Earth that you’ve escaped the lurking forces of industry and capital. No siree – this ain’t no tiny house commune where we all sit around the campfire and have a potluck every Sunday. Lives are on the line. And only one person can ensure everyone’s health. A man who gets figuratively and literally grounded up and spit out by the meat grinder of industry (on multiple occasions) – Mickey (17).
Directed by Bong Joon Ho, Mickey 17 follows Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, a simple-minded man who signs up for an intergalactic expedition with his friend Timo (Steven Yeun) in order to escape loan sharks. The expedition, led by deranged and twice failed congressional nominee Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his vain, sauce loving wife Ylfa (Toni Collette), uncomfortably resembles many shambolic political ventures here on Earth. Mickey, in a desperate attempt to leave Earth and start a new life, unwittingly signs up to be an “expendable”, a human guinea pig for experiments who is “reprinted” from a controversial human cloning machine each time he dies. Mickey gets blasted with nerve gas, exposed to cosmic radiation, and becomes the first one to walk on the new planet, as they need him to get exposed to any unknown viruses to prepare vaccines. While his life objectively sucks and his job literally revolves around him dying, Mickey finds a way to endure. Just as long as he gets to come back to his girlfriend Nasha (Naomi Ackie), a security guard/firefighter/cop abroad the ship, he can make it work.
To start, Robert Pattinson does absolutely phenomenal work in this movie. He portrays each Mickey iteration just as well as the last, while perfectly encapsulating different mannerisms for each Mickey. After Mickey 17 survives falling into a ravine and is found by Timo, Timo opts to retrieve a flamethrower instead of Mickey 17, stating “they’ll reprint you in the morning anyways”. Mickey survives, thanks to the native aliens, but when he returns, he finds a new and more menacing Mickey in his bed. Having multiple copies of an expendable is strictly forbidden, and so the two Mickeys fight to see which one lives. Here, Robert Pattinson truly shines. He plays the sheepish Mickey 17 to a tee, complete with all of 17’s anxious mannerisms, meek voice, and the perfect expressions that encapsulates his ever-present guilt. Pattinson still gives his best even when writhing in pain, as when 17 gets injected with an experimental growth hormone and convulses on the floor. His top-notch physical acting reminds me of the physical acting of Jim Carey. Meanwhile, Pattinson still portrays the erratic, grim, and violent 18 just as well as 17. The scene where 18 is furious upon hearing from 17 that he was secretly given the experimental growth hormone and still thanked Marshall was improvised by Pattinson. He puts on a fantastic display, and it places him on my Mount Rushmore of hot and talented actors that have to be slightly insane to be that good. He goes right next to Daniel Radcliffe, Paul Dano, and Glenn Howerton.
The romance between Nasha and Mickey marks another highlight of the movie. While you aren’t shown every detail on how they fall in love, you do sense a caring and trusting relationship between the two. In a world where everyone sees Mickey as fodder for experiments, or as a commodity to be shared when 17 and 18 appear, Nasha sees all iterations of Mickey as just Mickey. It’s sweet, it’s wholesome, and the whole movie revolves around their relationship. Another highlight of the movie: just how funny the whole thing is. The jokes never feel out of place, they make the whole audience laugh, and it gives the movie personality to an otherwise ridiculous concept. Mickey 18 out-freaking Mickey 17, Mark Ruffalo’s dinner, and all of Toni Collete’s scenes are so entertaining.
While a majority of actors gave great performances, this movie does leave a lot on its plate. For instance, Timo and the debt collectors side plot could’ve been cut from the movie and it would still flow the same. Nothing builds up to Timo confronting the loan sharks and we get no pay off. It just ends just as fast as it’s brought up. The movie dabbles in topics outside the main premise like political fanaticism, the philosophical implications of multiples, guilt, religion, and sauce, but it doesn’t delve any deeper into them besides mentioning them. The movie offers a lot in its first half, but once 18 goes full Taxi Driver it drops whatever side plots were going on and lasers in on the aliens and Marshall. It still entertains! I just wish we got to see more of Kai, Timo, the pro and anti Marshallites, the church, the suave pastor, and Toni Collete. It feels like an all you can eat buffet until you get to the second plate and all they’re serving is strawberry and bananas. Like, yeah, I’ll take it, but the other stuff was nice too. The dream sequence at the end with Toni Collete, while suspenseful and uneasy (thanks in large part to her), falls flat of what I expected and could’ve had way more potential. Mickey 17 does end in an endearing way, and I left the theater in a brighter mood than I came in.
Mickey 17 was full of amazing performances, highlighted by the stellar chemistry between Mickey and Nasha. The movie was funny, emotional, full of character, and while the amount of topics and characters introduced has you thinking it’ll head one way, the subsequent neglect of these characters and side plots leaves you wanting more. But whatever is left over still makes for a wonderfully entertaining story about an immortal guinea pig.
17/20.
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