Mickey 17

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★

Rated: M

Directed by: Bong Joon Ho

Screenplay Written by: Bong Joon Ho

Based on: ‘Mickey7’ by Edward Ashton

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo.

‘Hey Mickey, what’s it feel like to die?’

Based on the novel written by Edward Ashton, Mickey 17 is an absurd sci-fi set in 2054, where people are lining up to leave earth to follow a failed politician, Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) to a new planet, Niflheim.

If they ration food over the four-year journey, and don’t waste calories on exertion, like sex, they can ‘go forth and multiply’ when they reach their new home.

Mickey (Robert Pattinson) and his mate Berto (Steven Yeun) on the run from gangsters sign up.

Mickey signs up to be an expendable.

He didn’t read all the paperwork.

Yes, the movie is filled with idiots.

Mickey, not the worst of them.

The leader is a Trump cross Jimmy Swaggart character with a Frances on his shoulder, the wife here, Gwen, played by Toni Collette.

As well as religion, or religious posturing, Gwen is obsessed with food.

Specifically, making, ‘special sauce.’

All the while, Mickey gets to experience death over and over again.

Mickey dies, then his body gets reprinted in a 3D body printing machine and his memories saved in an actual brick to be reinstalled in the new body.

He also, against the rules, has sex with a special forces soldier, Nasha (Naomi Ackie), who takes a shine to Mickey.  As does Kai (Anamaria Vartolomei).

Stupid and reprintable are a plus on the space ship to Niflheim.

And it turns out Mickey 17 is a gentle soul as opposed to the next Mickey who exhibits psychopathic tendencies.  Each Mickey has a different personality.

It’s… silly.

And filled with dumb cruelty.

Mickey out in space while the scientists document his death from exposure to radiation:

‘Tell us, When does your skin burn?

When do you go blind?

And when do you die?

That’s the nut.’

All narrated with Mickey’s self-deprecation, his, That’s-what-I-get for-being-an-idiot attitude.

The most interesting part of the film was the natives on the new planet, bug-like creatures that have intelligence, described by Gwen as, ‘A croissant dipped in shit.’

Mostly, I was annoyed and cringing at the possibility of killing out of idiocy.

Which could be seen as a reflection of what happens when one nation invades another.

But the attempt at satire in this film fell flat.

There wasn’t any humour that hit the mark.

Mickey 17 is a different style of movie, I’ll say that.  But not in a good way.

Good Time

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.2/5)

Rated: MA 15+Good Time

Directed by: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie

Written by: Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie

Produced by: Sabastian Bear-McClard, Oscar Boyson, Jean-Luc De Fanti, Terry Dougas, Paris Kasidokostas Latsis

Composer/Soundtrack: Oneohtrix Point Never

Cinematographer: Sean Price Williams

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Ben Safdie, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tahliah Webster, Barkhad Abdi, Buddy Duress.

The Safdie brothers (Josh and Ben) return with their fifth feature film, building on their gonzo-style street films with Official Selection and winner of the Cannes Soundtrack Award, Good Time.

And I was hooked from the opening scene.

When Nick Nikas (Ben Safdie) is questioned by a psychiatrist (Peter Verby), you can tell there’s something not right with Nick.  He’s slow.  But asking for word associations for, ‘water and ‘salt’, the sadness and beauty and insight into the always lost but understanding all the same was given when Nick makes the association with the beach while tears run down his cheeks.

Then his brother, Connie (Robert Pattinson) bursts into the room, dragging his brother from a place that’s making him cry – it’s wrong to take Nick from a place trying to help him, but he does it for all the right reasons.  It’s love.

Connie’s not a bad guy, he just does bad things.  He wants his brother to feel what he feels.  Good Time

Sharing the experience of robbing a bank seems easy.  Connie’s smart.  Street smart.  He can manipulate others to get what he wants.  He’s bad because he’s misleading but Connie doesn’t want to hurt people, he just wants to help his brother making the character all the more believable because people aren’t purely bad or purely good, there’s always that somewhere in-between.

After Nick gets caught by the police, Connie has to come up with ten-thousand dollars to get him out on bail.  And he knows there’s only so many times Nick can change the TV and annoy the other inmates before he gets beaten to death.  So there’s desperation to get that $10K.  Nothing good comes from desperation.Good Time

Good Times felt like real life – a moment-by-moment record of controlled chaos.  Like life, sometimes there’s just no time.

Decisions are made in the moment to try to get through and survive.  The raw nature of the film reminding me of Oscar winner, ‘Moonlight’.  But I related more to the 90s vibe here.

I enjoyed seeing Robert Pattinson embrace his role, the Safdie brothers pushing that Brooklyn element of the film.

Ben Safdie and Pattinson wrote letters to each other for weeks as Connie and Nick, discussing their lives in character to develop the relationship between the two brothers to translate onto the screen.

People will go to see Pattinson in a new role but the stand out for me was Ben Safdie as Nick.

And the soundtrack has to be commended.

The more I get into film the more I understand the integration of image and sound to give the story its emotional landscape.

Sound can give so much more than words.

Here, the thought of the ocean began the emotional tone of the film which continued with the soundtrack.

Daniel Lopatin who records under the name Oneohtrix Point Never has created an electronic-based score with the film ending with a song recorded in collaboration with Iggy Pop.

Add the dialogue, sometimes written just before recording, the film had a chaotic feel, making the fiction truthful – believable because only real life can be that strange.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for more from the Safdie brothers.

Good Time had balls with a dash of genius.  And it wasn’t a harsh ride.  It just felt honest.

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