Director Malcolm Venville is said to have departed bicoastal/international Propaganda Films to join bicoastal 8Media….New York-based executive producer Bill Perna has exited bicoastal M-80….Laura Howard, formerly head of sales and client-direct business at bicoastal Tool of North America, is launching Los Angeles-based production company Slo Graffiti, a division of Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles….Simpson Films, New York, and director Jerry Simpson have gone independent, having ended an affiliation with bicoastal and Chicago-based Crossroads Films. Simpson Films is also currently seeking national representation after parting ways with Lew & Co., New York….Director Brian Scott Weber has joined No Prisoners, the Santa Monica shop headed by executive producer Bruce Martin….Word is that director Ashley Beck is joining Gas.Food & Lodging, Culver City, Calif….Director Tricia Caruso has signed with Highway 61, New York, for exclusive commercial representation. Also, executive producer Marc Rosenberg has come aboard the company as executive producer, succeeding Mark Jaffee, who recently left….Open Frame Productions, New York, has signed director Eric Barbier and the directing team Zoo for U.S. representation. Zoo is a three-man collective consisting of Julian Rambaldi, David Fauche and Mathieu Montovani. Based in France, both Barbier and Zoo are repped in Europe by Big Productions, Paris….Envision It, the Miami shop recently formed by Alana Rothlein, has signed directors Sylvie Jacquemin and Ana Coyne for spot representation….Riot, Santa Monica, has expanded its visual effects department, adding effects producer Alix Eglis and effects artist Claus Hansen….Editor Alan Nay has come aboard FilmCore, Santa Monica. He was with Pinnacle Studios, Seattle….Audio mixer Dona Richardson, formerly of AudioBanks, Santa Monica, has joined 48 Windows Music & Mix, Santa Monica….
Review: Director Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” Starring Robert Pattinson
So you think YOUR job is bad?
Sorry if we seem to be lacking empathy here. But however crummy you think your 9-5 routine is, it'll never be as bad as Robert Pattinson's in Bong Joon Ho's "Mickey 17" — nor will any job, on Earth or any planet, approach this level of misery.
Mickey, you see, is an "Expendable," and by this we don't mean he's a cast member in yet another sequel to Sylvester Stallone's tired band of mercenaries ("Expend17ables"?). No, even worse! He's literally expendable, in that his job description requires that he die, over and over, in the worst possible ways, only to be "reprinted" once again as the next Mickey.
And from here stems the good news, besides the excellent Pattinson, whom we hope got hazard pay, about Bong's hotly anticipated follow-up to "Parasite." There's creativity to spare, and much of it surrounds the ways he finds for his lead character to expire — again and again.
The bad news, besides, well, all the death, is that much of this film devolves into narrative chaos, bloat and excess. In so many ways, the always inventive Bong just doesn't know where to stop. It hardly seems a surprise that the sci-fi novel, by Edward Ashton, he's adapting here is called "Mickey7" — Bong decided to add 10 more Mickeys.
The first act, though, is crackling. We begin with Mickey lying alone at the bottom of a crevasse, having barely survived a fall. It is the year 2058, and he's part of a colonizing expedition from Earth to a far-off planet. He's surely about to die. In fact, the outcome is so expected that his friend Timo (Steven Yeun), staring down the crevasse, asks casually: "Haven't you died yet?"
How did Mickey get here? We flash back to Earth, where Mickey and Timo ran afoul of a villainous loan... Read More