Oscar-winner Bong Joon-ho and Robert Pattinson team up for the wacky sci-fi satire ‘Mickey 17’, plus other new movie rentals on Sling.
When Bong Joon-ho won the Best Director Academy Award for his 2019 masterpiece Parasite, he ascended to the highest tier of filmmakers by beating out past Oscar-winners Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendes, and Quentin Tarantino, who has never won Best Director. But, in a move that speaks to his singular brilliance, Bong didn’t leverage his Best Picture-winning film to make a small, personal film or the type of risky experimental project that alienates recent converts. Instead, the South Korean auteur made the satirical sci-fi comedy Mickey 17.
Set in the year 2050, Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson as a good-hearted but dull “expendable” grunt on a mission to colonize a frigid planet. Thanks to a technology that reprints his body and restores his memories every time he dies, Mickey performs a series of lethal tasks and experiments, including making contact with a native species that the space colonizers refer to as “creepers.” But when his 17th iteration unexpectedly survives his encounter with the planet’s wildlife, he returns to his meager quarters to discover that a new, more aggressive Mickey has already been printed.
In a lot of respects, Mickey 17 feels like a bigger-budget amalgamation of Bong’s previous films: it blends together the creature effects of The Host, the claustrophobic setting of Snowpiercer, the class struggles of Parasite, and the broad comic performances of Okja. That means that in some respects, the film will most strongly appeal to those who are already fans, and could alienate those who are only familiar with the more grounded Parasite. But conversely, its sci-fi premise and cast of actors who are familiar to western audiences opens it up to those who may not realize this is the follow up to a Best Picture winner.
Regardless, Mickey 17 stands on its own merits. Robert Pattinson has long proven himself to be one of the most versatile actors of his generation, and his goofy, squeaky-voice Mickey is a galaxy away from his take on Batman. Mark Ruffalo is clearly having a blast as the egotistic, autocratic leader of the mission, while Naomi Ackie gives a career-best performance as a security agent and Mickey’s love interest.
While it may not be the highbrow film that some fans were expecting from Bong Joon-ho, its themes, performances, and tone are squarely in his wheelhouse, which is to say, utterly unlike any other filmmaker working today.
Rent Mickey 17 on Sling for $19.99.
Other New Rentals on Sling:
Black Bag ($19.99)
The Last Supper ($19.99)
Opus ($19.99)
Magazine Dreams ($19.99)
Companion ($9.99)
The Brutalist ($9.99)
To rent any of these movies and thousands more, use the link below to subscribe to Sling TV today!
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