Mubi Monday: Mickey 17 (2025)

It should be obvious to many by now, but Bong Joon Ho isn't really interested in subtlety any more. His most recent movies, as great as they are, are a long way from his superbly uneven and nuanced Memories Of Murder. I still love pretty much everything that he does, but I also know that I don't mind when the lack of subtlety is so front and centre in a way that may put off others.

Mickey 17 is all about the titular character (played by Robert Pattinson), an expendable who is used by a deep space vehicle to take on the tasks that will result in death. Whether being exposed to dangerous amounts of radiation, being placed in environments that may contain elements harmful to humans, or just exploring terrain that is unstable and could house dangerous alien creatures . . . Mickey's your man. Whenever he dies, it's not long until he is simply "printed out"again, his memories uploaded into his brain, and made available for the next dangerous task. He's ended up with this life (these lives) due to being put in a sticky situation by a bad friend, Timo (Steven Yeun), but at least he has moments of happiness with his partner, Nasha (Naomi Ackie). Things become tricky, however, when the latest Mickey is assumed dead and a new Mickey printed out. Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 are both aware that there are strict rules against multiples, but maybe they can figure out a way to take turns dying while they piece together a relatively full life.

Based on a novel, "Mickey 7", by Edward Ashton, this is darkly comedic sci-fi fare with plenty to say about the exploitation of workers, the ways in which those in power continually keep those below them pitted against one another, and the hypocrisy and arrogance of those who decide to make a life elsewhere without proper planning or consideration for the territory they are invading. As you can imagine, it feels very timely, and some may not appreciate how closely it aligns to some current world events. It doesn't help that Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette play their characters, Kenneth Marshall and Yifa, as arrogant idiots who would happily ruin lives and entire ecosystems just to keep maintaining their image of confident leadership. They're definitely doing what is asked of them, but the broad comedy of their performances is at odds with the real and awful repercussions we can see right now because of someone who works in almost exactly the same way. 

Thankfully, aside from the silliness provided by Ruffalo and Collette, everyone else is much better. Again, I don't blame those two stars, but they're apparently hampered by the direction of their performances. Pattinson has no such problems, and has a lot of fun in his multiple roles, specifically when he gets to show a marked difference between the two most recent Mickeys. Yeun is enjoyably sneaky, Ackie is a nice mix of tough and caring, and the rest of the supporting cast includes such familiar faces as Tim Key, Thomas Turgoose, Anamaria Vartolomei, and Patsy Ferran, some getting a fair amount of screentime and some just popping up for all-too-brief moments.

As expected, there's also some consistently excellent editing work and FX work throughout, as well as production design that creates a realistic world in which the building farce can unfold. It's all in service to the themes that Bong Joon Ho is exploring, and it's a shame when the tone occasionally clashes with the grime and verisimilitude of the onscreen world, but it's also loaded with little details that complement the main characters and their journey.

Not wholly satisfying, it spins so many plates that some inevitably fly off and smash before being quickly replaced, but Mickey 17 is still the kind of thing I would rather see ahead of another empty blockbuster with CGI distractions making up for a lack of any real substance.

7/10

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Mubi Monday: Happening (2021)

Based on a 2000 novel by Annie Ernaux, and set in 1960s France, this is a film that takes viewers back to a time when women found themselves struggling to access the option of abortion after falling pregnant during the wrong time of their life. Good job that is an old-fashioned and harmful scenario that has been consigned to the dustbin of history, eh. 

I am, of course, being a bit facetious. I decided to watch this film now because of the recent events that have unfolded int he USA, but that country isn’t the only one that seems determined to stop women from having a choice in what happens to their own bodies. There are many other countries that make it difficult, including some that are hypocritically criticising the USA right now.

Anyway, let’s get to the film itself. Anamaria Vartolomei plays Anne, a young woman who finds out that she’s pregnant. That isn’t what she wants, because it could affect her studies, and subsequently affect the rest of her life. But finding anyone to help her proves to be very difficult, especially with the legal penalties that could punish any medical professional for even hinting at abortion as an option.

Directed by Audrey Diwan, who also helped adapt the source material with a few others (including Marcia Romano as her main co-writer), this is a drama with a strong point to make, and it features at least two scenes that will make many viewers wince, especially female viewers. While those scenes feel shocking, they also feel sad and disturbing because of the circumstances surrounding them. Nothing is here JUST for shock value. It’s all showing the desperation and difficulty of a pained young woman seeing people around her close off options that will allow her to reclaim her life as her own.

There are many other people involved in this cast, and all do a good job, but the focus remains firmly on Anne, which rests the entire movie on the young shoulders of Vartolomei. So it’s a good job that Vartolomei is so great as the lead character, being presented as an absolutely normal and “non-special” woman who tries to keep herself balanced while her world whirls and tilts around her. She is, deliberately or not (and I think it is deliberate), almost a blank page for others to project things on to, someone who is defined by one moment that creates a chain reaction that may be impossible to stop. She is one woman, she is all women, although I am very well aware that there are many others who would have an even tougher time if pregnant and aiming to regain bodily autonomy and control over their own destiny. But there are still enough moments of massively depressing familiarity here for anyone who has ever felt their world shrinking around them as they stretched out to find life-saving assistance from anyone nearby.

Maybe more of a lesson than a full movie experience, Happening is no less worthwhile because of how it is presented. In fact, it’s arguably more worthwhile, it’s a film that has standard moments of drama to simply string everything along in between the moments that it’s really designed to showcase.

I’m not sure if this will work for anyone who has a very strong “pro-life” stance, but you should try to get them to watch it anyway. Because we need to keep trying to convince people to care about human lives post-birth as much as they care about fetuses that they somehow imagine wearing little hats and booties.

8/10

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