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)
A vigilante steps out of the darkness with all the understated presence of a gunslinger on the old west frontier. You have to hand it to director Matt Reeves: after ten live-action screen appearances since Tim Burton’s 1989 film, and countless TV and animated outings, he’s found a new way of showcasing the caped crusader. Yet as the spotlight on the Dark Knight gets brighter, the edges of Gotham get even darker.
In fact, from its voyeuristic opening to the sudden appearance of a killer in the shadows, THE BATMAN has all the earmarks of a horror film. Pulling on elements from various comic book sources, including bits from the excellent Zero Year run of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, Reeves and Craig’s script cleverly sets us down two years into Batman’s adventures in Gotham. This means we don’t have to see poor Martha’s pearls hitting the pavement of Crime Alley once again, as well emphasising the moniker of The World’s Greatest Detective for the first time.
As a serial killer known as The Riddler terrorises Gotham’s elite, GCPD detective James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) involves vigilante Batman (Robert Pattinson) in the investigation despite the objections of his fellow cops. Haunted by his own traumatic past, Bruce Wayne/Batman is torn as he uncovers family secrets and connections with the enigmatic cat burglar Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), mob enforcer Oswald “Oz” Cobblepott (Colin Farrell) and crime lord Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).
With THE BATMAN, Reeves delivers one of the most stylish and gorgeously shot Batman films to date, casting Gotham in a timeless mix of neon, grimy streets and drug-filled nightclubs. Making full use of shadows and light, and providing plenty of places for the titular vigilante to emerge from, Reeves and production designer James Chinlund (War for the Planet of the Apes) give cinematographer Greig Fraser (Dune) plenty of visually literate images to linger on. At times, we’re smack dab in Times Square somewhere between the 1940s and 1970s, with overlapping neon signs that might have been captured by French photographer Andreas Feininger. At others, we’re in the corner diner of an Edward Hopper painting. The recurring motif of red bathes many scenes in a sinister red glow, and the use of Batman’s first-person point of view technology adds a peep show vibe to that ickiness.
Without the burden of an origin story, this Batmanwastes little time before cracking skulls and taking names. “Two years of nights have turned me into a nocturnal animal,” narrates Pattinson, as the obligatory Nirvana track kicks in to signify dissatisfaction. As we watch him break the bones of thugs, or indiscriminately fight his way through a nightclub, few objections will come from an audience of battle-hardened players of the Arkham video game series. These action sequences reach some magnificent heights, including the thundering introduction of the new Batmobile, backed by the dirge of a Michael Giacchino score that rattles the speakers and our back teeth in equal measure. The ensuing chase is doggedly determined to not keep any objects in the centre of frame for more than a half-beat, discombobulating us in a sea of darkly-lit angular shots. Yet the set-piece finale is quite a masterfully executed piece, albeit vaguely reminiscent of elements seen in The Dark Knight Rises.
The casting is genuinely inspired too. Pattinson steps confidently into a role already belonging to so many others, owning the new suit that’s equal parts Capullo and artist Lee Bermejo. Reeves keeps the presence of emo alter ego Bruce Wayne to a minimum, as that seems to be a less comfortable space for Pattinson. Similarly, Kravitz looks as though she may have stepped straight out of one of Darwyn Cooke’s illustrations, offering us a more complex version of the character than we’ve seen before. While we might have cringed our way through some of the Anonymous-influenced rants of Paul Dano’s Riddler, it’s the unrecognisable Farrell as Penguin that will have most talking, clearly having a ball under all those prosthetics.
Yet the film is often relentlessly bleak, and never quite gets out of those dark depths in a lengthy running time that makes you feel every inch. At times it treads a little too close to glorifying the violent models laid down by Watchmen’s Rorschach (complete with diarised narration) or the more recent Joker portrayals, but that’s par for the course with the film’s western motifs — and anything post-Frank Miller when it comes to the Bat. The torture techniques of the Riddler are especially disturbing, leaning into the sadism of certain horror flicks. If there are comparisons to be made with serial killer thrillers like Zodiac (and straight-up visual references to Se7en), one sometimes wonders who we are supposed to be rooting for. The Riddler himself points this out in a climax that effectively uses alt-right messageboards as a plot device, recognising the thin line between those who claim their ‘truths’ and the ones who act upon them in violent ways.
Which is the essential dilemma of the modern superhero film, or any depiction of the character since at least the 1980s. The Modern Age darkness of Batman began as a response to the militaristic nationalism of US discourse at the time, also reflected in The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Marvel’s Punisher to name a few. In an attempt to update the themes, film also takes an each-way bet on police corruption, condemning the system that allowed it while also serving some soft ‘rotten apples’ messaging. Writing about another hero, one that also went through a dark 80s transformation, Lampert (2007) concludes that the perpetuation of this model offers few options. “Either crypto-fascist super-cop, or crypto-fascist criminal; either way, the political choice is clear.” Reeves’ Batman starts with one foot firmly in the latter camp, and if this is an origin story of sorts, then it is about his journey towards the former.
While ending on a moment of hope, and laying down a path for the future, some may still feel that Reeves has already done his job, without any need to return to this particular world. As DC and Warner showcase a mixture of DCEU and retro offerings on the horizon, it’s unclear where this – allegedly the first of a trilogy of films – will fit in their grand plans. Yet as the final scenes hint at where the series might go next, it’s already starting to feel like we’re in familiar territory. For now, it’s a curious standalone Elseworlds piece that works best as an experiment in styles and a mixture of screen influences, with some great casting and a sophisticated sense of comic and cinema aesthetics.
2022 | USA | DIRECTOR: Matt Reeves| WRITERS: Matt Reeves, Peter Craig | CAST: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Barry Keoghan, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell | DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros. | RUNNING TIME: 176 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 2 March 2022 (AUS), 4 March 2022 (AUS)
Brothers Ben and Josh Safdie had already developed a solid reputation in indie features and documentaries before GOOD TIME exploded into the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Explode is an appropriate word, as it’s the kind of piece that hits you with an incredible force and leaves your senses scattered to the wind.
Constantine “Connie” Nikas (Robert Pattinson) and his mentally challenged brother Nick (Ben Safdie) attempt to rob a bank. A chain of events leads to Nick’s arrest and confusion over being placed in a holding cell. What follows is a chaotic night of Connie attempting to get the bail money together to get Nick out of jail.
GOOD TIME is less of a straight narrative and more like sensory thrill ride. Part of this is to do with Sean Price Williams’ (Golden Exits) electric cinematography, from his extreme closeups of the brothers to the claustrophobic and acid-laced neon madness of an amusement park. Then there’s the sexy score from Brooklyn-based experimental musician Oneohtrix Point Never, for which he won the Soundtrack Award at Cannes. Pulsing with the energy of its single minded leads, it turns even the most mundane moments into thrilling bubbles of tension, much as Cliff Martinez did with Drive.
For Pattinson, his post-Twilight career continues to distance himself from the mega-franchises as he once again disappears into another intense character. Constantly hustling people, even complete strangers within their own homes, he arrives on screen as a complete entity that physically transforms himself throughout the film.
Ben Safdie is remarkable as Nick, simply reacting and running on pure unadulterated instinct. There’s also a wonderful turn from Buddy Duress as Ray, another career crook who gets swept up in Connie’s whirlwind. With the aid of a slick montage, Ray gets to tell his story in a sequence that outdoes entire crime films in its focused intensity.
From the start, GOOD TIME sets itself for tragedy. It can only end one way for Connie, but there is still a chance for Nick. So it’s no fluke that we spend much of our time with Connie, on a misguided quest to ‘save’ Nick. We as the audience know what the way out of the cycle is, and in the end, the Safdies offer us the barest glimmers of hope for at least one of the Nikas boys.
[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIRECTORS: Ben Safdie, Josh Safdie | WRITERS: Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein | CAST: Robert Pattinson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ben Safdie, Barkhad Abdi, Buddy Duress | DISTRIBUTOR: Potential Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 99 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 12 October 2017 (AUS) [/stextbox]
An epic adventure film that revels in the poetry of life.
Werner Herzog has spent a career documenting humans forging their way into knowingly treacherous territory, whether it’s the mad perseverance of Fitzcarraldo or the deadly insanity of Grizzly Man, tracing the life and death of Timothy Treadwell at the hands of bears. With QUEEN OF THE DESERT, the writer/director’s first work of fiction since 2009’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?, Herzog returns to historical fiction to chronicling the life of Getrude Bell. In addition to being a writer and explorer, Bell was a contemporary of T.E. Lawrence, and thus instrumental in helping establish the Hashemite dynasties in modern Jordan and Iraq.
The film covers the personal and professional adventures of Bell (Nicole Kidman), painting her as a restless spirit who never fit in with British society at the turn of the century. Sent to the British consulate in Tehran, she begins a romance with Henry Cadogan (James Franco) and a much larger one with what we now refer to generally as the Middle East. Herzog’s script glances over significant accomplishments such as the ten new paths she forged in the Bernese Alps, but instead stays in that romantic ideal of the half-dozen times she crossed “Arabia” over the course of 12 years. It certainly allows him and his frequent cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger to stage a lavish and gorgeously realised vision of the dunes and vistas of period Arabia.
Kidman is a natural fit for this film, her star status disarming the audience into thinking there is nothing more to this adventurer than being a high-born daughter of privilege. Yet like Bell herself, Kidman is perfectly at ease in this harsh environment. The film doesn’t shy from her headstrong nature, something that was a fact of Bell’s popular reputation at the time, and the series of men that her life quite literally can’t wait to give up their treasures and secrets to her. Of those men, Franco’s accent shifts as constantly as the desert sands, but he provides a charming entry point for the handful of people who tie her more to Western civilisation than her beloved desert. By contrast, there is a desperation about Damian Lewis’ military man, who also becomes enamoured by the Desert Queen. These repeated loves and encounters merely hammer home the point that her “heart belongs to no-one now by the desert.”
QUEEN OF THE DESERT is fully aware of the cinematic legacy that it follows with David Lean’s epic, and indeed engages in a kind of intertextual dialogue with Lawrence of Arabia. It’s no mistake that someone of Robert Pattinson’s fame plays Lawrence in a small but memorable role, flippantly dismissing his own part in the British insertion in the Middle East, while rightfully praising Bell’s accomplishments. There’s more of a weariness about Pattinson’s Lawrence than Peter O’Toole’s, but there’s a direct line between the two performances, even as Pattinson downplays it to make it his own. At times, you can almost hear Maurice Jarre’s classic score stirring. Yet where Lawrence of Arabia found grandeur around every corner, QUEEN OF THE DESERT finds the unwritten beauty in the everyday moments of Bell’s travels.
Herzog’s deliberate pacing may frustrate some, as will the very definite heightened language of the melodrama that the film revels in. Yet like the Persian romance poetry that it so often references, the film patterns itself on the “poetry of life” that Bell professes she finds intoxicating about the desert. Herzog ultimately delivers something very different to his previous work, and it is an ambitious addition to his already significant contributions to cinema.
2015 | US | DIR: Werner Herzog | WRITERS: Werner Herzog | CAST: Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Damian Lewis, Robert Pattinson | DISTRIBUTOR: Transmission (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 128 minutes | RATING:★★★★ (8/10)
R. Pattz fans get your cameras and shirt-grabbing utensils ready! Hoyts Distribution has announced that they will be bringing out Robert Pattinson to Australia in support of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, the final chapter in the vampire saga. It’s Sydney only as well, so interstate fans will want to get their plane tickets now, we guess!
As part of the Sydney only tour later this month, Robert will be participating in media interviews to support the NOVEMBER 15 release of the film, and will appear at a fan event on Monday 22nd October, details of which will be revealed in the coming weeks.
The astonishing conclusion to the Twilight Saga franchise, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions.
Academy Award® winner Bill Condon directed both the first and second part of the two‐part finale starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. The film, based on the fourth novel in author Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, was written by Melissa Rosenberg with Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt and Stephanie Meyer producing.
Although known for his pioneering work in the realm of “body horror”, Canada’s David Cronenberg has shown an equal fascination with the limits of the human mind. In last year’s A Dangerous Method, he addressed the preoccupations of the psyche more directly, exploring Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud’s very awakening to the concepts of psychoanalysis and dream interpretation. Yet it is equally true that the director has long been enthralled with the meeting of machine and body, and with Cosmopolis, based on Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name, he muses on the union of all three of these totems in the context of the global financial crisis.
Cosmopolishas a freewheeeling and disjointed narrative, but primarily focuses on 28-year old billionaire Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) as he travels across a New York City in chaos to get a haircut. He keeps his watchful eye on the yuan, as it rallies despite his bet against it, resulting in great personal financial loss to himself. As his empire crumbles, the real world begins to invade his high-tech cocoon and his paranoia increases at the same rate as the actual threats to his life. In many ways, this is Cronenberg emerging from the other side of his own eXistenZ (1999), quarantining Packer from reality, his virtual world now his tomb rather than being one of symbiosis.
Films about the nature of capitalism have become prevalent since its apparent stumbling of the last few years, but none have explored the nexus between the organic, the psychological and the technological. In the 21st century, body, mind and machine are inexplicably intertwined, creating an arena in which we are simultaneously in a state of ubiquitous connectivity and yet more alone with our thoughts than ever. Cosmopolis may not be the first film to try to guide us through the digital morass, but it posits itself as a type of narrative that aims to acknowledge the failure of machine and man to psychologically carry us through the darkest chapters of our corporate history.
Robert Pattinson makes a complete break from his fangy persona, in a role that is more likely to repulse his legion of fans than it is to shock them. It is a measured performance, tightly under the rein of Cronenberg, but that is true of the rest of the cast as well. The stilted and existential conversations between Packer and a stream of business associates (including Samantha Morton), lovers (such as Juliette Binoche), wife of convenience (Sarah Gadon) and other professionals is as cold and calculated as his business dealings, at odds with the growing anarchy outside. As something resembling the Occupy movement mounts, and threats are made against Packer’s life, Packer is duly influenced, plunging himself into a personal chaos and spiral of self-destruction.
Cosmopolis is a difficult film to penetrate, but this is only partly due to the deliberate way in which it was constructed. Cronenberg treads a fine line between portraying isolation and actually detaching his film completely from audiences, but his curious mixture of sci-fi sheen with real-world problems grounds Cosmopolis in a way that a surface scan may not reveal. The implication is that the corporate disengagement from reality is partly to blame for the financial crisis, but far more fundamental is the wider apathy that has allowed this to happen.
Cosmopolis is released in Australia on 2 August 2012 from Icon Distribution.
The conclusion to the Twilight Saga series of films, this final chapter illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions. As will the first half, it will be directed by Bill Condon and stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.
Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is released in Australia on 15 November 2012 from Hoyts.
Just as the The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 saw the release of a 13 second teaser to the March teaser trailer, so too does the official trailer due to be released later this week. In the 9 seconds or so of actual footage, we see a baby being passed about and at least two unhappy vampire families. We’ve captured those moments for you in video and photographic form.
The conclusion to the Twilight Saga series of films, this final chapter illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions. As will the first half, it will be directed by Bill Condon and stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.
Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is released in Australia on 15 November 2012 from Hoyts.
The conclusion to the Twilight Saga series of films, this final chapter illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions. As will the first half, it will be directed by Bill Condon and stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.
Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is released in Australia on 15 November 2012 from Hoyts.
In a sure sign that a trailer is just around the corner, Summit Entertainment (via Upcoming Movies and IMPAwards) have passed along three new character posters for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2,, what is probably not the last we’ll hear from the fanged shiny ones.
Naturally, these one-sheets feature Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. The posters are a typical airbrushed close-up of the film’s three main assets, neither commenting on the content or the film or the potential motivations of the characters. If only all posters were so spoiler free!
Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is released in Australia on 15 November 2012 from Hoyts Distribution.
