Who is the best director of the 21st century so far? According to the list published by the newspaper The New York Times, Christopher Nolan, at least because he is the most represented, with five titles, among the 100 best movies released since 2020 (the American newspaper considers that the 21st century begins in 2000 instead of 2001). The five Nolan films they have chosen occupy positions 28, 53, 62, 65 and 89. If the position in the ranking is prioritized, perhaps more valuable are the four films that appear by Paul Thomas Anderson (3, 25, 42 and 56), the brothers Ethan and Joel Coen (6, 36, 76 and 83) and Alfonso Cuarón (13, 18, 46 and 97). However, none of these filmmakers tops the list drawn up with the votes of more than 500 personalities from the film world. Number 1 goes to Parasites, by South Korean Bong Joon-ho, of whom there is another title in the ranking: Memories of Murder (Chronicle of a Serial Killer).

One need only glance at this newspaper to realize that we do not live in subtle times. Right and left we find demagogues proclaiming absolute truths and divisions between good and evil that do not understand nuances. It is only fair, then, that Mickey 17 respond to this moral defeat by identifying the damage in a messianic intergalactic tycoon that Mark Ruffalo embodies with an inflamed vehemence and a stupid vileness that points unambiguously and without reservation Donald Trump. This condemns Ruffalo to a role closer to that of an imitator than to the full development of a character, but Bong Joon-ho has never had problems when it comes to moving in the strident farce, perhaps because of his ability to overlap all kinds of situations and bombard the screen with ideas guaranteeing a permanent flow of energy.

One only has to look at this newspaper to realize that we do not live in subtle times. Right and left we find demagogues proclaiming absolute truths and divisions between good and evil that do not understand nuances. It is only fair, then, that Mickey 17 respond to this moral defeat by identifying the damage in a messianic intergalactic tycoon that Mark Ruffalo embodies with an inflamed vehemence and a stupid vileness that points unambiguously and without reservation Donald Trump. This condemns Ruffalo to a role closer to that of an imitator than to the full development of a character, but Bong Joon-ho has never had problems when it comes to moving in the strident farce, perhaps because of his ability to overlap all kinds of situations and bombard the screen with ideas guaranteeing a permanent flow of energy.

It seems like an eternity ago the celebrated victory of thriller Korean Parasites at the 2020 Oscars, perhaps because only a few days later the pandemic broke out and everything that preceded it belongs to another world. However, five years later everything is still the same as in those unforgettable Oscars: Bong Joon-ho's smile, his presence alongside actress Sharon Choi and a surprising, politically incisive and memorably staged film. In the case of Mickey 17, presented this Saturday at the Berlinale, is of an interstellar scale: the return of the Korean director is a science fiction comedy set in a spaceship that travels to space to colonize a distant planet, and the protagonist is a Robert Pattinson given over to comedy with a display of grimaces and physical humor reminiscent of both Buster Keaton and Jim Carrey.