‘Mickey 17’ - A superb satire

If you’ve ever worked a bad job, you’ll find plenty to relate to in Mickey 17. It’s a biting satire on wealth disparity with Robert Pattinson playing the titular Mickey, working a dead-end job in the literal sense. His occupation is to perform the life-threatening tasks that often result in his not making it to the end of the day. For Mickey, death is but a minor inconvenience, as he’s simply reprinted and back to work as an all-new clone.

His circumstances are a dramatic escalation, but the core of his career is something that’s all too familiar. Certainly Mickey’s role as an “expendable” aptly describes many in the audience who feel like dropping dead would result in nothing more than a corporate-approved grieving period followed swiftly by their new hire replacement.

Mickey 17 taps into the truth of gainful employment and does so in a weird and wacky fashion. The characters are over the top, yet at the same time depressingly recognisable. Mark Ruffalo plays an image-obsessed egomaniac whose followers adorn themselves in red hats and praise his devotion to purifying the human race.

It’s far from subtle about what it’s trying to say. Mickey 17 paints a dark picture of humanity, all the while finding the humour in its ridiculous predicaments. The crux of the movie occurs when Mickey ends up competing against himself brought forward in an impressive dual performance by Pattinson.

The Mickey you first meet is a sheep, but the next one to follow is a wolf. The performances are distinct, allowing Mickey 17 to posit questions of identity, purpose, and morality to the audience. By the end, the film leaves a good amount open for deliberation as you exit the cinema, but is nonetheless a satisfying conclusion.

Mickey 17 has a grimy world and its heightened characters might not sit well with the average person at the cinema. Yet, underneath its dystopian aesthetic, there’s a human story that’s infinitely relatable. It might not be for everyone, but it’s certainly about us all.

Rating: Big Screen Watch

Damian Levy is a film critic and podcaster for Damian Michael Movies.