Have We Seen this Before? Mickey 17 and a Fresh Take on Human Cloning

Ever feel like you’re replaceable at work?

Seeing double?

Cue the latest Neocolonnial feature from Bong Joon Ho, Mickey 17, the 8th feature from this esteemed director also known for Parasite, Okja, Snowpiercer, and The Host.

In the year 2054, a fascist imbecile politician spearheads an interplanetary, quasi-cult, religious expedition to the newly discovered frozen planet Niflheim.

A perilously dangerous exercise made possible thanks to “expendibles”.

Hapless Mickey Barnes neglects to read the small print when fleeing loan sharks on a ship headed away from Planet Earth. He successfully lands employment – as an “expendible” subject condemned to die over and over in the name of scientific advancement. He is “reprinted” as a clone each time with his memories.

Darkly humorous and satirical. I loved this.

The film is based on sci-fi novel Mickey 7 (yes, “7”) by Edward Ashton.

Absolutely stellar performance by Robert Pattinson, Naomi Aki, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo.

Also very timely. Spot on impersonations of Zuckerberg and Trump, along with a few subtle to overt jabs at Musk and Bezos.

What, and who, are we prepared to sacrifice for our quality of life?

Poor Mickey never seems to value himself and his right to insist on basic amenities, to great comic effect in this movie.

It’s filled with plenty of deadpan one liners and bold imagery. 3D human printers jamming, failed macaroon enterprises, stick figure-animated Kama Sutra, intergalactic scenery, canteen calorie rationing, literal memory bank “bricks”, earnest befuddled bespectacled scientists, puppeteered egotistical far-right autocrats, the most disgusting faux meat steak I’ve ever seen scoffed by our unfortunate protagonist (picture badly set jelly), and many hilarious jabs at US neoliberalism and late corporation-town establishment. There’s also the interesting dynamic of women pulling all the strings but still allowing men to believe they hold the cards.

Also featuring strangely adorable pill bug-like extraterrestrials.

It held my attention deeply from start to finish, some will find it runs a bit long and goes in odd directions in the last third of the film, but I don’t agree with them. It’s great, sharp dystopian fun.

This film builds upon pressing themes present in modern film and literature relating to human cloning, post-capitalism, and compromised individuality made popular in features including but certainly not limited to: Moon, Severance, The Substance, The Lighthouse, Tender is the Flesh, Orphan Black, Never Let Me Go, Starship Troopers, Snowpiercer (of course), and so on and on.

Now we have a quote of the year that truly needs to be screamed into the face of more politicians everywhere:

“WE’RE the aliens, you moron!”

8/10 stars

Now showing at Luna Cinemas

By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, look right here!

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