Mickey 17 – REVIEW & COCKTAIL – The Martini Shot

It’s been nearly seven years since I’ve been able to say this, but fellas, we hittin’ the BONG tonight. Ever since I saw The Host back in college, I knew this Bong Joon-ho guy was one to watch. But when 2019 rolled around and Parasite entered my field of view, it hit me: this guy just made the best movie of all time. Sure, call it recency bias, call it baby’s first deep dive into Korean cinema, but not only do I find Parasite to be a perfect film, I think it’s my favorite movie of all time. Wanna know how sure and/or delusional I am? My very first tattoo is an homage to the film. And since that film came out, it has pained me that we have not had a new Bong Joon-ho film every couple of years. Especially when we had one right in our grasps, only for it to be delayed again and again due to differing varieties of tom-fuckery. But, hey the follow up to my favorite film ever is finally here, so you know what it’s time for: setting my expectations way too high!

Nothing may ever surpass what Parasite has done to me, but Bong has once again given us a fun, zany sci-fi that takes capitalism and class inequality out from under the microscope and blows up onto the side of a building. Like Snowpiercer and Okja before it, Mickey 17 finds ways to take these themes we’ve visited time and time again and slap us with a pretty unsubtly fun time. The grungy, corporate, futuristic setting isn’t the most unique looking, yet it all feels fully realized thanks to expertly attuned attention to authenticity and presentation. Driven by a kooky, all-timer performance from Robert Pattinson and supported by equally kooky roles from Mark Ruffalo, Steven Yeun, and Toni Collette, Mickey 17 may not be everything I had wanted in a Bong Joon-ho follow up, but to call myself disappointed would be a big, fat lie.

Set in the not too far off future, Mickey Barns looks to get off Earth by signing up to be an expendable to colonize a new planet. The catch? Humanity has found a way to clone humans, meaning Mickey is brought back again and again and again to test diseases and do the dangerous work no one else wants to do. But when Mickey’s 17th copy doesn’t die when he probably should have, he returns to find his 18th copy already created, and the two must vie for control over the short but meaningful life Mickey has established.

So, like, Robert Pattinson really is one of the best to ever do it, right? I mean, we knew this with The Lighthouse, The Batman, Good Time, The Boy and the Heron, hell, even whatever he was doing in The Devil All the Time. But Pattinson has truly proven his salt here with a role that is so silly and goofy, and yet there’s something so genuine and down to Earth about it. Mickey 17 has negative self-respect, believing himself to be eternally punished after a car accident he believed he caused took the life of his mother. This self-loathing still manages to steer him towards little sparks of happiness, such as his relationship with space cop Nasha, giving him glimpses of the life he becomes willing to fight for after surviving a near-death experience. Mickey 18, his successor, is quite the opposite, willing to channel that self hatred into a rage and aggression that can earn him the life he wants deep down. Pattinson does a phenomenal job at creating a distinction between the two, from their dialect to their body language, never feeling like we are left with two Pattinsons, but two different Mickeys. There’s so much brilliance in the little nuances of Pattinson’s performance, even down to how he enters a scene. From the voice to the line deliveries, Pattinson takes some big swings that I really believe hit successfully. He truly elevates the concept beyond what we’ve seen of it, finding a nice middle ground between the restrained and the insane.

The supporting cast actually exists more on either end, depending on who we’re talking about. There’s of course Nasha, played by Naomi Ackie, who never loses sight of Mickey’s humanity no matter how many times he’s killed and re-printed. Her confident, assertive personality not only never lets us forget that, but it helps Mickey realize that as well. But then on the opposite end is Mark Ruffalo’s Kenneth Marshall, a failed politician looking to create his own success story through this dangerous mission where he’ll hardly lift a finger, but take all the credit. It’s a hammy reflection of capitalistic greed, one that manages to weave the illusion of his own importance despite not bringing much of use to the table. Now look, Ruffalo and Bong said Marshall isn’t based on any one politician or figurehead, and I’d like to believe them despite the…let’s say “colorful hats” his supporters wear. But there’s one scene in this film that is so reflective of a major US incident that I was shocked to find out this was all shot before it had happened. If we’d have gotten this film last year like we were supposed to, the conspiracy theorists would have been running wild with this one, let’s just say that. Ruffalo’s performance is sure to land with some and miss with others, but overall, I didn’t hate it. Bong has never been one to turn away from using heavy handed satire, but as long as it’s used in a way that’s actually funny, then you’ll get no complaints from me. Other standouts include Steven Yeun and Toni Collette, who I’m sad to report don’t get nearly as much screen time as they probably deserve, but they leave their marks in hilarious ways with the time they’ve got.

So after an entire filmography centering around the evils of capitalism and power dynamics, what does Bong have left to say? If you’re only really familiar with his English language films, Snowpiercer and Okja, you may think Bong has come back to take another swing on a long-dead horse. But where those aforementioned films take a look at these issues on a large, broad scale, I think Mickey 17 manages to focus far more on the individual amidst all of that. Mickey becomes a product of a system that values profit over people, being constantly whittled down by the strain of dying again and again, that the apathy his peers express towards him begins to rub off on him. It becomes kind of ironic that a guy reconstructed with literal human waste finds himself to be feeling pretty shitty, no? I mean, this guy is literally a breakthrough in immortality and will lead humanity to countless discoveries and successes, and yet he’s poised to be remembered as a faceless tool rather than a person. His strife is often forgotten and minimized while those pulling the sitting back and pulling the strings will receive all the credit. I don’t want to speak for everybody, but I feel like we don’t have to wait until 2050 for that to become our reality. It’s such a bleak reflection of the way the world works, but Bong never loses sight of what makes man special to begin with. Try as they might, the powers at be can’t just remove your humanity and use you as a faceless, feelingless drone. We’re going to continue to act on impulses, we’re going to continue to chase our desires, and even if the machine desperately needs that not to happen, then maybe we should look into changing the machine rather than ourselves. 

I think where most of my issues come from with the film is its beginning and ending. One is a tad scatterbrained and a tad messy in establishing the rules and setup of the world, and the other feels a tad too neat and happy-go-lucky, but these all feel pretty minor when everything between them is pretty great. Mickey 17 is up there with Dune 2 as a modern sci-fi miracle to come out of Hollywood. Not only does it look great, and not only is it a lot of fun, but there is also a genuine artistic voice behind it that knows how to anchor our future fears to our modern day anxieties. It isn’t the same genre-bending, subtly allegorically laced film Parasite was, but that’s okay. It’s another notch in the overstuffed championship belt of Bong Joon-ho; one that speaks on what the director feels so passionately about while still finding new ways to say it while still sounding familiar. Needless to say, I am in love with this man and can’t wait to see his next film in the next decade probably. Until then, I’m just gonna spend these trying times remembering we deserve to be happy and to surround ourselves with sauces. Yes, that is the takeaway from this movie.

RATING

CREEPER SAUCE

Sauce is the true litmus test of civilization. A crazy rich lady said that once, and seeing as how I am a lowly peon, I have no choice to believe her. So when you need a sauce that is also a cocktail, what do you turn to? Me personally? I simply refuse to turn, because I know, waiting over my shoulder, is the brunch classic: the Bloody Mary. As an avid tomato hater, I am not a fan of this cocktail, but I wanted to give it another go, this time beefing it up (literally and metaphorically) with some additional ingredients that I believe fit the idea of the film and just simply taste good. So I’m utilizing fat washing and beef broth to add a tinge of savory saltiness to the drink, along with some Asian elements like kimchi juice and sriracha. And it tastes pretty good! Maybe it’s worth destabilizing an entire ecosystem and species just to get it.

INGREDIENTS

• 2oz fat washed bourbon (NEED ~2 strips of bacon and 1 cup of bourbon)
• 2oz tomato juice
• 1oz beef broth
• 1/2oz kimchi broth
• 1/2oz lemon juice
• 3 dashes Worcesterschire sauce
• 1tsp sriracha
• Pinch of pepper
• Garnish: cocktail shrimp
• Rim: Tajin

INSTRUCTIONS

FOR THE FAT WASHED BOURBON

1. Combine the leftover grease from two cooked strips of bacon with a cup of bourbon in a sealed container (such as a mason jar)
2. Shake periodically and let sit at room temperature for about an hour.
3. Put the container in the freezer, preferably overnight, but at least 12 hours should do.
4. Remove from freezer, then use a knife or spoon to break up the congealed fat sitting at the top.
5. Strain fat out of bourbon into a new container, using a cheese cloth/coffee filet/damp paper towel to make sure all bits of fat are removed.

FOR COCKTAIL

1. Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake to chill.
2. Strain into a tall glass filled with ice and rimmed with tajin.
3. Garnish with a few skewered cocktail shrimp.