Bong Joon-ho Bets It All On Robert Pattinson In 'Mickey 17'
#311: "Mickey 17," "Shoresy," "When Harry Met Sally," "Sicario"
Edition 311:
Hey movie lovers!
This week: A new movie from master filmmaker Bong Joon-ho! Plus a new TV show I’m hooked on and two all-time great movie recommendations. In this week’s “Trailer Watch,” our first OFFICIAL look at the most important movie of the summer.
Mickey 17
When you’ve made a movie as successful and celebrated as Parasite — a huge hit commercially, a quadruple Oscar winner, and considered by critics to be one of the best movies of the decade — you understandably get a blank check on your next project…to varying levels of success.
Some use it to make a passion project (Scorcese made a Rolling Stones documentary after The Departed; Alfonso Cuaron made the autobiographical Roma), others go as big as possible (Chloe Zhao made Marvel’s Eternals; Michael Cimino made Heaven’s Gate and bankrupted an entire studio).
Bong Joon-ho made Mickey 17, a sci-fi satire about a man who works as a human lab rat, his body re-printed on a futuristic machine each time they kill him off (in the name of science! … or for fun).
It’s definitely big, with budget estimates putting it in the $180 million zone (Parasite had a ~$12 million budget), but it’s also still Bong. As with all his movies, this story focuses on the haves versus the have-nots, or more accurately, rich, awful people keeping poor, innocent people under their thumb.
That’s certainly the case for our titular Mickey. But unlike some of director Bong’s other work, which can be cold and acid-tipped in its class commentary, this movie is daffy and fun. Mickey, played brilliantly in all his different versions by Robert Pattinson, narrates the entire movie with a voiceover that is like if Henry Hill from Goodfellas was a wimp with 30 IQ points.
There’s definitely comedy to be found in that, but it’s a very delicate thread to weave into a complicated and perhaps overstuffed 2hr17min. There is of course the adventure element, of a spaceship trying to colonize a new planet. There’s the “duplicate” plotline, for those that have seen the trailer, where Mickey 17 is presumed dead and returns to his bunk only to find a freshly printed Mickey 18 there waiting.
And then there’s the political allegory — though again, allegory is generous because Mark Ruffalo plays the spaceship leader so broad and obviously spoofing Donald Trump. The Korean filmmaker’s rendering of a buffoonish, self-aggrandizing, incompetent leader feels about nine years out of date and even quaint by today’s standards.
Don’t get me wrong, when the movie works it really works. Bong is one of the best filmmakers on the planet, and none of his now eight movies are anything less than very good. The thing I really appreciate about his filmmaking style is that it’s precise but not intentionally showy. He really emphasizes character and story (as I always say, deep down I’m a #plotguy). But because his style isn’t going to overwhelm a viewer into appreciation, it’s in service of those other elements, in this case some of the fault lines are more apparent.
The tonal inconsistency blunts or at least distracts the central themes of the story, and leaves a viewer uncertain about how to feel at its conclusion.
In fact, the strongest criticism I could levy against this movie is to call it fake-provocative. This is somewhat of a complex idea that first came up around Promising Young Woman, and at the time I rejected it because I liked that movie, but now I understand. If the stance of a movie presents itself to be anti-establishment, that the current structures of power are corrupt and the people in power are ruining our lives … but then the movie concludes with the “system” correcting itself and installing new people into power without the structures being upended, does that not make the criticism pretty bland and pointless?
That’s a lot to get into without spoiling the movie and its ending, and in fact I think the fact that conversation about the movie can get to that kind of level does speak to its merit. We’re holding modern masters to a different standard, by which I can say this isn’t one of my favorite of his movies, yet it’s still easily the best movie at this point in 2025. And Pattinson’s performance is exceptional, and when you stop to think about it, he might be putting together the best film résumé of any actor under 40.
The real shame is that chances like this come around so rarely these days that each one carries an enormous pressure to succeed and be great. I think it’s why, in recent years, I’ve championed wild swings like Beau is Afraid or The Substance, and why I would absolutely tell you to go see this movie. In theaters!!!
Something New
Shoresy (Hulu): This couldn’t be further from the kind of TV show I usually go for, but after effusive praise for it on a podcast I like I gave it a shot — pun intended, for a show centered around a semi-pro adult hockey league — and now I’m hooked. It takes some time to get used to just how unusual it is stylistically…the characters speak in a flat affectation and nearly every line of dialogue is a bit.
But once you get the rhythms of the show it’s incredibly funny, charming, and sneaky emotional too. The characters all trash-talk each other non-stop right up until the moment when they don’t, and in their vulnerability you might find yourself…choking up? Really?? Come prepared to add about five different sayings to your daily lexicon, which will thoroughly annoy the uninitiated.
Something Old
When Harry Met Sally (1989): The thing I noticed on this re-watch, of what is arguably the most iconic romantic comedy of all time, is how the story is basically one long continuous running dialogue. Almost every scene picks up the conversation left behind by the previous scene, albeit with a new backdrop of some iconic New York City location (seriously, this movie is NYC porn of the highest order) like Katz Deli or Central Park when the leaves are changing.
It makes the movie kind of float along like a fairytale, which the movie pays off in the end with an all-time great rom-com line: “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” I can’t believe everyone hasn’t seen this yet!
Something To Stream
Sicario (Netflix): It’s been a long time since this movie has surfaced on a major streaming service, sand I have a feeling a lot of people haven’t seen it, though they may be a fan of director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies or any number of writer Taylor Sheridan’s TV shows.
This early entry for both is brutal, edgy, and mysterious, so much more than just THAT border-crossing scene (one of the great movie scenes of the 21st Century). The thing that sticks out to me is absolutely perfect casting, from Emily Blount in the lead role as a naive young agent, Josh Brolin as the cocky CIA guy, Benicio Del Toro as a mysterious killer, and around the edges Jon Bernthal and a YOUNG Daniel Kaluuya. It’s a super-elevated version of a hard genre thriller — one of my favorite kinds of movies.
Trailer Watch: F1
We’ve already had teasers and first-looks and featurettes, so I forgive you for being surprised that this is actually the first “trailer” for Apple’s big summer blockbuster. If the Fleetwood Mac music bed, Top Gun: Maverick director and sun-speckled movie star weren’t enough evidence, Apple is betting the farm that this movie is going to be their first theatrical breakout (and I hope it is!).
What there’s been less of to this point is any actual hint as to the content of the movie (not mad about this, fwiw), and the original teaser had us thinking something more Moneyball, but pretty clearly from this trailer a better comp would be The Color of Money, where an aging legend has to contend with a hotshot upstart. Here’s to hoping it can be as good as that Scorcese classic, and that everyone goes to see it this summer.