Bong Joon Ho and Mickey 17
I’m not sure there’s a director who has a wider gap between my favorite and least favorite films in their oeuvre than Bong Joon Ho. For me, Parasite and Memories of Murder are absolutely sublime, practically perfect films that are squarely in my list of the top twenty films made this century. On the other end of the spectrum, I find Okja to be practically unwatchable, and am completely baffled by the high esteem in which Snowpiercer is held. In the middle – but much closer towards the higher end of Joon Ho’s work than the bottom – are The Host and Mother, both excellent films.
The director’s newest film, Mickey 17, falls squarely in the middle. Okay, below The Host and Mother, but well above Snowpiercer and Okja. I’d place it on par with A Barking Dog Never Bites, a flawed, sometimes frustrating film that nevertheless has moments of brilliance.
Mickey 17 is a mish-mash of pop culture references: the opening scenes in the ice cave sure felt like they could have taken place on Hoth, and by the end it was giving off strong Nausicaä of the Valley of the Windvibes. The creature design is very similar, and there’s even a plot point where the evil tyrant tortures an adorable baby creature. Even more than that, I spent a lot of time wondering if Joon Ho has been reading the last five years’ worth of X-Men’s Krakoan Age, which also includes a resurrection protocol based around back-ups of consciousness that are uploaded into newly created bodies. (The 3-d printing element of Mickey 17, however, was wonderful – Mickey’s starts and stops as he emerges from the cylinder like it’s pulling him back in to print the other side, the attendant who forgets to pull out the tray for Mickey to be deposited onto…great stuff.)
On the whole, too many plot holes, too many character arcs left unfinished, and perhaps the first time I’ve ever seen Mark Ruffalo in a film and not loved his performance. Seriously, it was like he was watching some relative who was impersonating Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of Trump, and basing his performance on that guy. But at the same time, Robert Pattinson squeezes more empathy out of the role than should be possible, and Steven Yuen constantly makes sure no one’s taking any of this too seriously.
Is it too much to hope that this is a brief pause before Joon Ho returns with the spiritual successor to Parasite? Probably – he’s always been interested in making the films he wants to make, not the ones I wish he would make. Which, of course, is what makes him one of this century’s truly indispensable directors.