The Excesses of 'Mickey 17'

Cast adrift in an inky abyss and cleaved from the terrestrial realm that defines us, the human is forced by the hostile vacuum of outer space into a confrontation with body and being. Director Bong Joon-ho’s preferred mode of storytelling has long been a structural critique of power tempered by the humor he wrests from his films’ otherwise abject scenes, and in Mickey 17, it is precisely a space expedition that frames this romp through the horror and comedy of fleshly existence. Set in a future when interplanetary migration has become the solution to a ruined and depleted Earth, Mickey 17 is a dystopian reminder that we are closer to meat than stardust.