FIRST REACTIONS PRAISE BONG JOON HO’S “MICKEY 17” AS A ZANY AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING SATIRE, A “PERFECT FILM FOR OUR TIME”

“Mickey 17,” starring Robert Pattinson, opens in cinemas March 5

The highly anticipated “Mickey 17,” director Bong Joon Ho’s first feature since winning the Best Picture Academy Award (as well as Best Director and Best Original Screenplay) for his 2019 film “Parasite,” had its world premiere in London, followed by another premiere at the 75th Berlin Film Festival, on February 13 and 15, respectively. Reactions from the premieres have come out, praising Bong’s latest film as worth the wait.

Watch the trailer for “Mickey 17”:

Indiewire’s critic David Ehrlich posted that “Bong Joon Ho is still very good at making movies.”

In their review, Deadline Hollywood said, “Based on the book by Edward Ashton, director Bong has adapted [the book] with a distinctive cinematic style as a dizzyingly funny but pertinent satire.” 

Total Film posted their initial reaction to the film, lauding it as “zany… a thrilling, unexpected sci-fi drama” and in their review said that the film is “funny and charming from the get-go, building out a fascinating sci-fi world from its central conceit that ends up speaking to powerful and timely concerns through humor, satire, and exhilarating genre elements. Bong Joon Ho’s best English movie to date and arguably Robert Pattinson’s best movie ever.”

SlashFilm was very impressed with what they called another masterpiece from director Bong, saying, “With a sublime cast, ‘Mickey 17’ is a deeply heartfelt and uncomfortably funny musing on capitalism, colonization, and corruption. It’s a perfect film for our time, and Bong Joon-ho’s best English-language film yet.”

Adam McKay, himself a writer/director (“Don’t Look Up,” “The Big Short,” “Anchorman” movies), couldn’t help singing his praises for “Mickey 17,” saying, “It’s hilarious, wild, sometimes genuinely heartbreaking and a perfect allegory for the hellscape stage of capitalism we’re in right now.”

“Mickey 17” tells the story of Mickey Barnes (Pattinson), an unlikely hero who has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living. It also stars Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo. 

“Mickey 17” will first open in South Korea on February 28 and will be available in other markets a week after. In the Philippines, “Mickey 17” opens in cinemas March 5.