Starring Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo

Directed by Bong Joon-Ho

Warner Bros, in cinemas now

Mickey Barnes doesn’t only live twice…

Based on the book Mickey 7 by Ed Ashton and directed by Oscar winner Bong Joon-Ho, Mickey 17 is a raucous, graphic, violent and extremely enjoyable satire about capitalism, schoolboy fascism and the perils of letting someone like Elon Musk and Donald Trump run your society.

Its release having been delayed more than once, the movie has finally found its time at almost the perfect opportunity – at the start of an authoritarian robber baron regime in the world’s major super power.

To that end, it couldn’t be timed more perfectly, pitching as it does a complete nobody called Mickey against a system and a community who sees him as entirely expendable.

Mickey’s deaths in this movie (and we see all of them) are not just meaningless, they are callous, exploitative and nasty – treating him as nothing more than an object, than as property, to be used without any reference to his humanity.

Ruling over this is Mark Ruffalo’s ‘supreme leader’ who is an almost perfect combination of Musk and Trump in the shape of a tinpot vain, narcissistic and quite psychotic Mussolini. Adding perfectly to his portrayal is Toni Collette as his enabling and equally self-absorbed partner.

Bong Joon-Ho is ruthless in scraping the scab off the impact of having people in charge who care only for themselves. He’s also ruthless in showing how the powerless are given no choice but to willingly cooperate in their own exploitation.

If the story veers into the gloriously absurd that’s OK and if there are elements that make no sense (such as why anyone would fall in love with him or why there’s a dream sequence right at the end of the movie that adds nothing) then they’re forgivable because Mickey 17 is never less than neon bright and full of violent love for skewering the rich and powerful.

Verdict: A film that reminds us that the powerless are never quite that, that the powerful are often only that because we let them have that power and, finally, all this can change if we want it to. Mickey 17 is an antidote to the gloom so many of us feel when faced with authoritarian governments.

8/10 giant woodlice

Stewart Hotston