Mixing humor and insight, Mickey 17 shows the ignorance and weirdness of human behavior. Adapting his screenplay from Ed Ashton’s novel, director Bong Joon Ho plays with themes he enjoyed in his other works like Okja and his Oscar-winning Parasite. People, he notes, seem prone to sabotaging themselves. This happens for title character Mickey 17, a replicant in a dystopian future space craft. Played by Twilight’s Robert Pattinson, Mickey guilelessly neglects to read the fine print about his new job as a quote “expendable.” No one else signs on because they know what that term means: you can die. And die Mickey does, right up through the 17 times listed in his name. Keeping the tone light with a bouncy music score and doofus expressions from his star, director Bong balances the need to keep action moving while spending sufficient time to set the stage for other issues he wants to explore, namely class divisions and lust for power. This puts co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette up front with suitably over-the-top performances that might well fit into a current Saturday Night Live skit. As the story moves on to up acting challenges-- well met by Pattinson—special effects join the mix to create added richness and depth. As in Parasite, Mickey 17 shows director Bong quickly shifting gears, twirling between satire and social commentary.
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