Movie Review

Film satire Mickey 17 kills off star Rob Pattinson many times

Robert Pattinson plays many different versions of the main character in Mickey 17.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Writer/director Bong Joon-Ho struck gold with his 2019 film Parasite, which won four Oscars, including Best Picture. That satire, one of the first in a recent spate of “eat the rich” stories, was the culmination of a career that the South Korean filmmaker has spent commenting on various social issues. He’s back at it again, perhaps a bit more obliquely, with his new film Mickey 17.

Set in 2054, it follows Mickey (Robert Pattinson), who decides to take drastic action after running afoul of a criminal syndicate. He decides to volunteer for a mission, led by failed politician/blowhard/cult leader Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), to colonize a far-flung snow planet called Nilfheim. Not caring what it takes to join, he chooses to become an “expendable,” aka a person who will participate in deadly experiments repeatedly, with clones of himself printed to be killed again.

Mickey fulfills his duties multiple times - 16 to be exact - until Mickey 17 unintentionally fails after seemingly being attacked by huge pill bug-like creatures dubbed “creepers,” by Marshall. Not knowing he wasn’t dead, mission staff create Mickey 18, setting in motion the central conflict. Mickey 17 must deal with the paradox of living with his clone, his now-muddled romance with Nasha (Naomi Ackie), and more.

Based on the novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton, the film has fun with the ethics of cloning, space exploration, megalomaniacal leaders, and more. Your mileage may vary on how well the humor comes across, but it’s clear that Bong is aiming to satirize a lot of different things, as well as examine how humans react in certain extreme situations. The humanity of Mickey himself is called into question, given that the original Mickey is dispatched early in the film.

Bong used the collateral from his Oscar wins to get a much bigger budget than usual for him (reportedly $120 million), but the 140-minute film still maintains a relatively small feel. The specificity of the details of the story make it constantly interesting to watch, from the kowtowing of Marshall’s team of lackeys to the disgusting food Mickey eats throughout the film to the legion of creepers that emerge during the third act.

As the film goes along, though, it’s hard to fight the feeling that an overall point to the story is missing. The arc of Mickey 17 is enjoyable, but the film doesn’t seem to truly reckon with what it means to use clones in such a manner until a too-convenient third act reveal. The comedy and action are serviceable, but because they are supposed to be a means to an end that never fully materializes, their impact is lessened.

Pattinson clearly has a blast playing the multiple roles the film requires, imbuing each clone with little differences. He plays Mickey 17 and 18 off each other well, going between slapstick and melodrama. Ackie is a great complement to him, playing a supportive character who also has her own agenda. Ruffalo and Toni Collette, who plays Marshall’s wife, get to ham it up relentlessly, giving performances that are effective if somewhat grating.

Mickey 17 is right in line with the rest of Bong’s filmography, but after the highs of Parasite, it feels like a disappointment as a whole. Pattinson brings a verve to the film that the wild story needs; unfortunately, it never becomes as memorable as some of Bong’s previous work.

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Mickey 17 is now playing in theaters.

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Movie review

Over-the-top The Bride! makes other Frankenstein movies seem subtle

Photo by Niko Tavernise

Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley in The Bride!.

The story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster is now over 200 years old, with Mary Shelley’s book having been adapted or referenced in close to 500 films. Less common is the character of The Bride of Frankenstein, which existed in the original text but has more often than not been excised in adaptations. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal has tried to rectify that by giving the character a big showcase in her new film, The Bride!.

Gyllenhaal has reimagined the story as one in which a woman named Ida (Jessie Buckley) becomes possessed by the spirit of Shelley (also Buckley). At the same time, the already-existing Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) approaches Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), who specializes in reanimation, with the request to make him a wife. When Ida falls to her death in an “accident” involving her boyfriend (John Magaro), the ideal corpse becomes available.

After Ida’s resurrection, she and the monster become restless being studied by Dr. Euphronius and decide to break out to experience the world. The world, naturally, is not exactly welcoming to them, and soon the couple are on the run for causing mayhem, including a few murders. In hot pursuit are detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his assistant, Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz), as well as other authorities.

It’s clear that Gyllenhaal wanted to merge the Frankenstein story with Bonnie & Clyde, especially since she sets the film in the mid-1930s. And that wouldn’t have been a bad idea if having the monster and The Bride going on a crime spree was truly the focus of the movie. But most of the time there’s less intentionality in their misdeeds and more confusion, leading to a muddled plot with no clear direction or end goal in mind.

One of the biggest problems is that Gyllenhaal starts the energy of the film at an 11, giving her and everyone else nowhere to go but down. She dabbles in multiple different tones, at times going the straight drama route and other times making what seems like full-on camp. At one point, she even has the monster and the Bride in a dance sequence set to “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” which would be hilarious as an homage to Young Frankenstein if the film weren’t so disjointed.

Most baffling of all is what Gyllenhaal wants from The Bride character. She morphs multiple times over the course of the film, from close to unintelligible at the beginning to rough-and-tumble at the end. There are hints at the lack of control she has over her autonomy, including Shelley’s possession of her and the monster lying to her about her past, but any commentary that Gyllenhaal might be trying to make gets lost amid the oddity of the film as a whole.

Both Buckley and Bale are all-in for their performances, which definitely fall in the “love it or hate it” dichotomy. Each scene is pitched so high that there’s little nuance to either of them, and neither is on par with their previous Oscar-caliber roles. The high-powered supporting cast of Bening, Sarsgaard, Cruz, and Jake Gyllenhaal is watchable based on previous roles, but none of them elevate this particular movie.

Whatever intentions Maggie Gyllenhaal had in making The Bride! are only halfway legible in a film that can never find its tonal footing. There has rarely been subtlety in movies featuring Frankenstein’s monster and related characters, but this one makes all the others seem like stuffy dramas in comparison.

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The Bride! is now playing in theaters.

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