Movie Review: Mickey and the Bear

Mickey and the Bear **** / *****

Directed by: Annabelle Attanasio.

Written by: Annabelle Attanasio.

Starring: Camila Morrone (Mickey Peck), James Badge Dale (Hank Peck), Calvin Demba (Wyatt Hughes), Ben Rosenfield (Aron Church), Rebecca Henderson (Leslee Watkins). 

 

After re-watching Five Easy Pieces (1970) for the first time in years a few weeks ago (spoiler alert – it’s still a masterpiece), I re-read Roger Ebert’s Great Movies Essay about that film from 2003, and was struck by Ebert calling it the “first Sundance movie” – in part because in the years since Ebert wrote that, Sundance movie has become almost as cliched as mainstream movies – as they’re always full of movie stars, looking for some cred, by acting in a quirky film (I generalize, of course, but so many times out of Sundance we hear about a surefire audience hit, only for it to get ignored when it comes out a few months later, as it’s the same as last year’s surefire hit, that was also ignored). I bring this up at the beginning of a review of Annabelle Attanasio’s Mickey and the Bear, not because it’s as good as Five Easy Pieces (it isn’t) – but because I think that like Five Easy Pieces, it wouldn’t fit in as nicely in the Sundance of 2020 as it would have when Ebert wrote his great movie essay. Mickey and the Bear is the type of movie that Sundance would deem “too small” (which is why it’s a SXSW film), too small for something like the Independent Spirit Awards, and basically too small for most audiences to ever hear of the film – which is why, despite good reviews last fall, it basically came and went from theaters quickly without attracting much notice, and is now streaming, where too few people will watch it. It is a small film – but it’s a real film, in that it’s a film about real people, dealing with their real lives. As small as that is, it taps into something all too rare in movies these days – that everyday drama can still make for great movies.

 

Mickey is played by Camilla Morrone, and she’s a just turned 18-year-old girl from Anaconda, Montana – who outwardly seems satisfied with her small town life, her smalltown boyfriend, and what promises to be a small-town life. Her mother died of cancer a few years ago, and her father, Hank (James Badge Dale) is an Iraq war veteran, suffering from PTSD, is an alcoholic and addicted to oxycontin, and basically doesn’t leave their trailer, where he plays video games all day, unless it’s to go drinking. Mickey meanwhile goes to high school, holds down a job, and takes care of Hank – who tries to be very fun, very cool, but is an insecure mess.

 

Mickey does have bigger dreams for herself though – even if she doesn’t let anyone know about them. They are small in the grand scheme of things – a plan to go to San Diego City College, and leave this behind, but she worries about leaving. Will she be good enough? Will she have enough money? What will become of Hank without her? When she meets Wyatt (Calvin Demba), a transplant from the UK, she starts making small moves away from that small-town life, but will she really pull away.

 

The movie is no more dramatic than that really. Her friend is already pregnant – already has her life set ahead of her, and Mickey sees that her life with Aron will basically be the same. Hank makes fun of Aron but is clearly not threatened by him in any real way – if Mickey is with him, that means Mickey is still here. He is threatened by Wyatt however – which makes him act in more extreme ways with him.

 

The performances here are key. Morrone is excellent in the first movie role I will remember her for (apparently, she was in Eli Roth’s Death Wish – but I have already forgotten that film). What she does here is sensitive, subtle, quiet and devastating. Dale is just as good as Hank – an insecure mess of a man. Yes, you feel sorry for him – and you should – but over the course of the movie, as you see more sides of him, you realize he doesn’t even want to get better – isn’t even trying. You expect there to be a scene where he encourages Mickey to leave him for her own good, but what you get the exact opposite – him begging her to stay. In a small role Rebecca Henderson is excellent as the psychiatrist at the hospital that Hank refuses to see – she knows precisely who he is.

 

The film is the directorial debut of Annabelle Attanasio, and it’s an excellent debut. She has confidence in her screenplay, and her actors – she holds shot a beat longer than you may expect, and they sink in. I think the ending perhaps pushes a little too far – there is a lot that happens in a single cut that the film doesn’t explain, but I kind of feel it should have – it pushes a little too hard. But it’s that push that Mickey needs. She can stay in Anaconda and have nothing – or she can at least try to get out. That can be messy and can involve doing things that hurt others – but at some point, you have to choose between hurting them, and hurting yourself.