It’s early, but the rest of the 2025 film slate has competition for the wildest movie of the year in Mickey 17. The latest from Bong Joon-ho, the critically acclaimed director of Parasite, stars Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, and Toni Collette. It also features one of the wildest narratives and turns in one of the most bombastic movie experiences in years.
Mickey 17 Leaves a Lasting Impact
Whether you like it or hate it, Mickey 17 will stick in the brain for a while. Based on the similarly-named novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton, everything about the film adaptation is zany. The aesthetic, the plot, the dialog, it’s all over-the-top and sometimes unhinged (complimentary). The film is not a one-to-one adaptation of the book, which is a personal favorite of mine. All the changes, even upping the Mickey count in the title from seven to 17, are done in service of two things.
First, it’s done to up the outrageousness. A person dying and being printed back out over and over again for a space colony is pretty wild, but Bong Joon-ho takes the narrative and ups the ante. There’s a ridiculous amount of physical comedy, too. Second, it’s done to serve the overarching narrative them.
The director is known for biting social commentary. Watch any of his previous films, and a class-based thematic element is present in all of them. This is no different, even if that theme is only a small one of many present in the novel. Joon-ho plucks it out of the text and extrapolates it.
Robert Pattinson Stars, But He’s Not Alone
The plot is loosely the same, with a general starting point and end point with overlapping narrative points in the middle. But all of these plot changes, again, are done to hammer home that sociopolitical commentary. It’s Joon-ho’s latest attempt at painting the picture of rich vs. poor, this time using an absurd sci-fi premise to do so.
There is, of course, much more to it than that. There are musings on life and death and what it means to be human. There’s a commentary on colonialism and white supremacy. There are ethical debates on how far science should go in pursuit of something. It’s a brilliantly layered film.
Robert Pattinson is tasked with carrying most of that. The Twilight actor has worked hard to shed the label that he can’t act which was perhaps rightfully applied after that film franchise. Both he and Kristin Stewart are fantastic actors, and Pattinson in particular has gone to a lot of effort to make sure he picks good projects and puts in great performances.
This is no different, as Pattinson has to play two roles. They are the same person, both Mickey Barnes, just the 17th and 18th iterations of him. However, as the film’s central conceit details, they’re not quite the same. In fact, despite sharing personality traits and memories, they’re quite different.
Mickey 17 is quiet and caring, and his 18th version is angry, brash, and maybe a little foolhardy. Pattinson not only has to act alongside himself, but he has to put in two separate, convincing performances. By now, there shouldn’t be any doubt about The Batman star’s acting skills, but let this be yet another example of Pattinson being one of our generation’s finest. Of course, there are still eight months or so for Oscar-level performances from leading actors, but a Best Actor nomination would not be uncalled for here.
That’s not to say that Pattinson is carrying this film on his own. He’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting as the two main characters in a movie with about eight or so major characters. But he’s joined by an ensemble of excellent thespians putting in quality work. Naomi Ackie has an excellent range on display and great line delivery throughout. Steven Yeun is convincingly good at playing the self-centered, thoughtless rat.
Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette are both hamming it up as the over-the-top power couple, and that term is not used negatively. Ruffalo perfectly captures the idiosyncracies of a certain type of personality that has become quite prominent today. The supporting actors, specifically the ones in support of Ruffalo’s Kenneth Marshall, are so accurate it’s almost painful.
It should come as no surprise that Joon-ho, writer and director, hits the anti-capitalist, anti-rich sentiment hard. He’s never really been one for subtlety, and this is as unsubtle as a sledgehammer. The satire is quite obvious, and that’s by design. If you perhaps missed that concept in his other films, it’s kind of hard to miss this time.
There’s talk of a “pure colony,” a very clear reference to a hate group that is sadly making a little bit of a comeback in 2025. Speaking of, the fact that this movie endured so many delays to be released at this time feels almost intentional given how apropos it is to today’s climate.
Whether you like the movie or hate it, and one viewer walked out of my showing claiming there were “no redeeming qualities” in the film, it has something to say and it says it clearly. It also says it well, thanks to a crisp script, stellar acting, and fabulous as always directing.
That’s not to say there are no flaws. The first hour is filled with a lot of exposition. In the book, this is done by having Mickey Barnes reflect or reminisce or even just tell readers about something from the past. It’s sprinkled in and out, but that can make a film feel disconnected and jumpy. Instead, Joon-ho has to have a bit of an exposition dump. None of it’s bad, but it’s all set before the opening scene and it takes a good while to get back to that.
Still, it’s a wild ride that took some unexpected turns that will surprise even readers of the source material. March is the first month of the year that starts actually having consistent, good movies. It sure looks like Mickey 17, similar to Dune Part Two last year, is putting an end to the winter and ushering in 2025’s biggest and best movies. Don’t let this one flop.
Score: 4.5/5
