Director Jacques Steyn has joined Santa Monica, Calif.-based Aero Film. Steyn has been directing commercials and image films out of his own Radical Images based in Germany. His forte is high-end car work for Audi, Lamborghini, Volvo, Mercedes and Mitsubishi….Director Jack Wung, whose short films made their mark on the festival circuit, leading to his successfully diversifying into commercials and music videos, has come aboard bicoastal/international Instant Karma Films. He earlier earned distinction for being one of eight up-and-coming directors chosen by Saatchi & Saatchi N.Y. for the P&G Small Gifts project…Matt Howell has joined Modernista!, Boston, as director of digital production, where he will run the agency’s digital production capability internally and with its network of development partners. This includes the development of websites, software, mobile applications and other interactive brand engagements…..Broadway Video has added editor Dan Fisher, a specialist in broadcast promotions and other short form media. Fisher, who won a Promax World Gold Award earlier this year for his work on a campaign for the Sci Fi Channel series Who Wants to be a Superhero?, will collaborate with Broadway Sound editors Mike Garatty and Kevin McElligott in crafting promotional spots and campaigns for broadcast clients….A pair of New York houses–creative post boutique Bionic and branding specialist firm Flying Machine–have entered into a creative alliance. Via this association, Flying Machine’s Micha Riss will serve as creative director for Bionic on select campaigns and projects. Flying Machine gains access to Bionic’s visual and audio talent and resources….
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