Tag: Naomi Ackie

Review: Mickey 17

So, you’re Bong Joon-ho. Your film Parasite unanimously wins the Palme d’Or, becomes the highest-grossing South Korean film in history, and pulls off the Guinness World Record feat of scoring Academy Awards for Best Picture, International Feature Film, Original Screenplay, and Director. Naturally, your next move is a sci-fi black comedy romance with Robert Pattinson.

For those only half-watching Bong’s career, this might seem like an odd, left-field pivot into Hollywood. But let’s not forget: Snowpiercer already took him there, and Okja brought the titular genetic super pig to Netflix screens. This is hardly new ground for a filmmaker whose tongue has always been planted firmly in cheek.

Based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel Mickey7, writer/director Bong leans into the same over-the-top satire as Okja, landing somewhere near Starship Troopers. The film follows Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) and his childhood friend Timo (Steven Yeun), who flee Earth for the offworld colony of Niflheim after falling into debt over a Macron business.

Without reading the fine print, Mickey signs on as an ‘Expendable’—a human drone sent in for the dangerous work. When he dies (which he has, sixteen times by the time we meet him), he’s simply printed again with his memories intact. Things get complicated when Mickey 17 is mistakenly presumed dead and Mickey 18 takes his place.

There’s very little subtlety to MICKEY 17, which might be one of the most glorious things about it. The expedition is led by failed political candidate turned cult leader Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), whose followers wear red caps with slogans on them. Yes, it’s that kind of picture. Yet in a film where Pattinson regularly flops out of a printing tube like meat, and Marshall’s wife Ylfa (a wonderfully unhinged Toni Collette) has an unhealthy obsession with sauces, you can’t afford to take half-bites.

One of the joys of the first half of the film is watching Pattinson’s take on the monotony of functional immortality. Between the daily grind and being dispensed in increasingly absurd fashion, Mickey 17 has resigned himself to eke out existence just as it is. A light romance with security agent Nasha (Naomi Ackie), who has remained his girlfriend since his first iteration, adds a sliver of emotional grounding.

With the arrival of Mickey 18—and a wonderfully chaotic dual turn from Pattinson—the film shifts gears. The discovery of giant bugs on Niflheim sets up broad satire on the nature of colonisation, religious fanaticism, and arguably, immigration as well. Here, Ruffalo and Collette deliver their batty best, skewering everything from conservative televangelists to political leaders like, well, you know.

There’s possibly too much happening in the last act of MICKEY 17, particularly during an extended denouement that tries to pull the rug out from under us more than once. Still, Bong’s film remains a sharp and enjoyable sci-fi flick with a brain—one smart enough to know when to be stupid.

2025 | USA, South Korea | DIRECTOR: Bong Joon-ho | WRITERS: Bong Joon-ho | CAST: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo | DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros. Pictures (USA), Universal Pictures (Australia) | RUNNING TIME: 137 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 6 March 2025 (Australia), 7 March 2025 (USA)

March 5, 2025
Review: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The cultural cache of Star Wars was immeasurable for decades, at least up until 2015 when J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens, the first continuation of the Skywalker Saga since 1983, hauled in a tidy $2 billion at the box office.

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is the conclusion to that story, although a lot has happened to the Star Wars landscape in the last four years. Following the release of The Last Jedi, the internet formed some opinions and those opinions formed petitions. Thanks to the spin-off films (Rogue One, Solo), Star Wars has become an annual event. In fact, with the launch of Disney+ and The Mandalorian, it’s a weekly one.

So, after a small off-screen epic that saw Rian Johnson, Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly all attached to the film in various capacities, the return of Abrams to the director’s chair is ostensibly a course correction for the series. Or at least a public response to ‘fan’ outrage. Picking up some time after the events of the last film, the voice of Emperor Palpatine has been transmitted and everyone is in a fuss about it.

The somewhat rushed opening act fills in some of the gaps. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is on a quest to find the Emperor. Rey (Daisy Ridley) continues her Jedi training under General Leia (the late Carrie Fisher). With new information from a First Order spy, Rey, Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Isaac), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and various others trek off to find the necessary McGuffin to save the galaxy.

Much like The Force Awakens, part of the mission of Abrams and Chris Terrio’s script is to restore good faith in vocal fans. As such, THE RISE OF SKYWALKER spends some time wandering through the past, either in a literal sense (by visiting old locations or characters) or more thematically by aping moments from previous films.

As a fan, it would be disingenuous to say that I didn’t enjoy the hell out of this nostalgic approach, and every one of these bits of fan service hit the mark. Some were bittersweet, of course, with Fisher and original Chewie Peter Mayhew having shuffled off the mortal coil since the last film. There are a few patchwork appearances in the final act that were clearly included to get around their importance to the script as originally written but these can easily be forgiven given the circumstances.

That said, Abrams also seems determined to throw in as many ‘gasp!’ moments as possible. Rarely pausing for breath in its lengthy runtime, questions are answered in rapid succession about character origins and hidden motivations. Some of it is a little too neat, and the reintroduction of the Emperor itself seems like a cheap redux that uses familiarity in lieu of creating a new threat.

Yet as the title would imply, this is both the end of the Skywalker saga and the restoration of a newer hope. It’s certainly not a spoiler to say that the paths of Kylo Ren and Rey are not the ones we’ve been led to believe, and in order for a balance to be restored to the Force, some classic fears have to be conquered. If that involves a series of cool lightsaber battles and cameos, then so be it.

Following a few similar story beats to this year’s Avengers: Endgame, Abrams wraps up his story on a curiously ambiguous note. It’s a film that tries to have its cake and eat it too, wish-fulfilling every comments section but also not completely committing to a happy ending. Still, taken as a whole, the Abrams version of Star Wars is a fun one and a successor to Return of the Jedi as a series closer.

2019 | US | DIRECTOR: J.J. Abrams | WRITERS: Chris Terrio, J.J. Abrams | CAST: Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong’o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 142 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 19 December 2019 (AUS)

December 18, 2019
Review: Lady Macbeth

Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth has been called many things, from an “anti-mother” to a witch, yet few can deny the powerful presence that she has in the writer’s Scottish play. Director William Oldroyd’s film might not necessarily follow the Bard’s plotting, nor strictly feature the vengeful queen herself, but it certainly captures the essence of the character.

Partly inspired by the novel Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov, screenwriter Alice Birch shifts the setting to rural England in 1865. Even so, Birch keeps every drop of the commentary on the subordinate role women were expected to have in this period. Katherine (Florence Pugh) is sold into a loveless marriage to the much older landowner Alexander (Paul Hilton). During his frequent absences, she begins a passionate affair with estate worker Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis), unleashing a powerful drive that is difficult to put back in the bottle.

If anywhere was going to physically represent the repression of a person, it’s the gloomy landscapes of Northumberland. Recalling the bleakness of Wuthering Heights, the long and wind-chilled moments of the first act are a study in arrested development and sexual frustration. The film cuts loose as Katherine does, with a key sequence of the Lady discovering what ‘the help’ get up to marking a turning point for the narrative. Passionate sex is juxtaposed with stately tea with the vicar, and she becomes capable of doling out cruelty with equal relish.

Pugh gives an award-worthy performance as someone who necessarily transitions seamlessly from subjugated to empowered and murderous. We follow her through one event after the other in a society built to keep her down, including the sudden appearance of one of Alexander’s illegitimate children that she becomes responsible for. At the start of the film, she is made to face a wall while her husband masturbates. Later, we see her defiantly humping her lover in front of her husband. Pugh’s final character turn, one purely enacted to save her own position, is as chilling as it is wickedly delightful.

Viewers will, and probably should, feel appalled at some of the actions of the leads, but it’s also difficult to not secretly cheer Katherine on. For even though this could be loosely categorised as a costume drama, and one that has an undeniable austerity and measured coldness, it is just as worthwhile to see this as a compact and atmospheric horror film. Katherine is the unstoppable ‘final girl’ and while see is capable of devastating violence, it is all in self-defence against a soul-killing society.

2017 | UK | DIR: William Olroyd | WRITERS: Alice Birch (Based on the novel by Nikolai Leskov) | CAST: Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomi Ackie, Christopher Fairbank | DISTRIBUTOR: Sharmill Films | RUNNING TIME: 89 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 29 June 2017 (AUS)

June 28, 2017