Satire is what closes Saturday night, so the old adage goes; for one reason or another, there’s little of it about these days. So Don’t Look Up is something against the grain; an all-star comedy released on Christmas Eve on Netflix, and sure to find an audience. And while politics are involved, Adam McKay’s film has more to offer than a Saturday Night Live sketch; this story about a comet heading for earth works as an alternative take on disaster movies, but also contains an metaphor for climate change, as humankind takes all the wrong lessons from the warnings received and literally does nothing about the impending crisis.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays a rare, lighter role as Randall Mindy, a lowly astronomer who stumbles across evidence that the world is about to end. Together with his student Kate (Jennifer Lawrence), Mindy attempts to warn the President (Meryl Streep) who is more concerned with her image, smoking, forthcoming mid-terms and her drug-addled son (Jonah Hill). The duo instead head for television to leak the story, where an appearance on airhead talk-show The Daily Rip leads Mindy to betray his wife for an affair with the vacuous Brie Eventree (Cate Blanchett). The US hatches a plan to blow up the comet, but creepy entrepreneur Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance) discovers that the comet has repositories of valuable materials, and starts making alternative plans to harvest them while a Dr Strangelove clock ticks down towards doomsday…
Don’t Look Up has plenty of specific shade to throw on the deadly intransigence of the Trump administration (the anaesthesiologist in charge, for one, the politicised ‘impact deniers’ for another, and those who peddle expensive shovels as alternative remedies too). McKay is also is keen to attack expediently-minded politicians, brain-dead talk-show hosts and immoral entrepreneurs; it’s a scattergun approach, but many of the pot-shots do hit their target. The endless trivialisation of Mindy’s mission reflects the superficial nature of 2021 culture, and one of the key aspects here is the wasting of time and putting-off of difficult decisions. The world has the opportunity to fix problems, but continually gets distracted by other, more trivial things, and that’s a solid point for Don’t Look Up to make. Mindy asks people to look up to alert themselves to the onrushing dangers, sparking a movement of those complaining that such a request violates their constitutional right to look down, then a mealy-mouthed liberal middle-ground emerges telling people they don’t have to look up or down, then the charity concerts begin and the battle is lost before it even begins.
Last year Netflix foisted the awful environmental catastrophe movie The Midnight Sky on us, complete with George Clooney dying to save the world for our future children, and such preachy do-gooding had absolutely zero-impact. Mining the same seam of scabrous satire as The Big Short and Vice, Don’t Look Up shouldn’t suffer the same fate, with lots of talking points to draw in casual viewers. Ariana Grande sending herself up wickedly in a big one, ditto Chris Evans, although Timothee Chalamet’s turn falls rather flat. Otherwise, it’s a Swiftian film about the ongoing age of stupid, one that never lectures, but entertains. We should be looking up, not down, right now; McKay’s film wittily depicts how such a direct message is too much to bear right now.
Don’t Look Up lands on Netflix everywhere this Christmas Eve 2021.
Brownie points for spotting Chris Evans… toddles off to check when, why and where
He’s in the big movie about the asteroid hitting, does an on camera interview near the end…
Thanks, will mean a rewatch.. but worth it for Di Caprio going full tilt meltdown..
I thought it tried desperately to be today’s Dr. Strangelove with borrowed ingredients from Catch-22 and Breakfast of Champions and ended up choking on its own, unoriginal vomitus. Kudos to DiCaprio for disappearing in his neurotic role, and I enjoyed the punches to social media’s capabilities. But, in a packed theatre, only one person laughed, and it wasn’t me.
Wow, you saw this in a theatre, that’s a collectors item. Satire works for one person, but not for others, it’ll be interesting to see how this film ends up being remembered…
If the dinosaurs didn’t worry about, then I say we don’t need to either.
Besides, Bruce Willis would save us if an asteroid was heading to earth anyway….
Maybe 1988 Bruce could save us, but that model has been discontinued.
This film features Merley Streep eaten by dinosores. FAct!
I’d watch a movie where Streep gets eaten by dino’s.
As for your Brucie comment, I don’t know. I think you’re not having enough faith in the power of Nostalgia. If our world has shown us anything, things that are 30-40 years old are the coolest ever and can overpower even rational humans with barely a ripple.
Bruce was John McLane and we must never forget his sacrifice in the Nakatomi Plaza. We will not see his like again.
Oh, so you’ve edited your version of Die Hard eh? Make it more Japanese?
He sacrificed his holiday. Never forget.
As long as there is Christmas, there will be Die Hard.
I will always remember.
Welcome to the party, pal.
Look at you, Mr Quotes himself!
If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were a movie reviewer or something.
I’m starting a new tag called Mango Monday in which I look at what’s new in the world of tropical fruit.
See, I always knew your real passion was fruit!
(it certainly explains why you hang out with Alex and me)
No explanation for such a mind-expanding arrangement is required.
Mambo Monday will look at classic dance music.
Looks too depressing for the holiday season! I’ll watch once Hallmark stops running their Christmas movies……!
Oh, knowing Hallmark, that may be some time. Incidentally, think Being the Ricardos might be up your street. Interesting portrait of a female star fighting against male industry….
You’re right, they never end. But I lose interest in them after the 25th. Totally going to see the Ricardo’s! I’d see it whoever was playing Lucy but I love Nicole Kidman so that’s icing on the cake.
Yep I’ll be doing this one!
Yup, an end of the year gang-show with a funny, relevant message; what’s not to like?
I’m not sure. The trailer looks great. The Big Short and Vice though both came up short I thought. Something about this guy’s approach just doesn’t quite gel for me. He certainly has easy enough targets.
Also clock not clocks.
Thanks, fixed. This is a far more accessible movie that the previous two, and one where the satire is not restricted to ‘real events.’ I think casual viewers will turn in for the likes of Grande and Evans sending themselves up, so it doesn’t need Selma Gomez in a bubble bath…and even if not everything lands, so what? It’s a movie about 2021, and that’s a rare burst of relevance….