This article appeared in the February 21, 2025 edition of The Film Comment Letter, our free weekly newsletter featuring original film criticism and writing. Mickey 17 (Bong Joon Ho, 2025)Berlin has always been considered one of the most political of film festivals, with programming tending to reflect key social debates over the decades. This year, the festival opened with a flurry of statements of position—coming shortly before J.D. Fun but cluttered, this is a Bong film closer to his lightweight Okja (2017) than to Parasite (2019), and it’s enjoyable if overstretched. Oddly rhyming with Dreams was another film about the dangers of following desire to cross a forbidding divide.