Don't Look Up

DON'T LOOK UP
2021 | Dir. Adam McKay | 138 Minutes

"The truth is way more depressing. They are not even smart enough to be as evil as you're giving them credit for."


When a pair of astronomers discovers a comet that's on a collision course with Earth, sure to cause an extinction level event for all life on the planet, they do everything in their power to warn politicians, the media, and the masses. However, no one seems to care. As their proposal to save the world is ignored, postponed, and subsequently hijacked by a heartless megacorporation, time inevitably runs out for humanity.

Don't Look Up is tonally in line with director Adam McKay's recent output of politically charged dark comedies, The Big Short and Vice, but while those films present embellished accounts of true events, Don't Look Up is work of fiction that essentially functions as an allegory for the immediate crises of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic at the time of its production. The picture is an epic scale, deeply pessimistic satire exploring how a global crisis can be ignored by the powers that be and then quickly politicized and exploited for capitalistic gain. Though the feature paints a disturbingly accurate picture of how incompetent politicians, shallow media personalities, greedy corporate moguls, and the perpetually-distracted masses would react to such a crisis, the comedy mined from the scenario is more smug and contemptuous than sharp or incisive. The first two thirds of the film are serviceably amusing but the humor of the situation fades considerably and a general feeling of bitterness reaches overwhelming levels as the narrative winds down and the frustrated main characters find humanity barreling towards extinction.

Don't Look Up is at its most impressive when it effectively demonstrates its massive scope. All sectors of humanity are represented with a generous allotment of screen time in order for McKay to dress them down thoroughly and brutally: inept politicians, arrogant industrialists, shallow entertainers and, last but not least, the ignorant masses comprised of belligerent science-deniers, social media sycophants, and the apathetic youth. The visual effects are genuinely mostly awe-inspiring as the film features numerous well-rendered shots of the comet's journey through space. To the credit of McKay's vision and the effects team, the half-heartedly interstellar attempts at saving the world are depicted with as much drama and overwrought detail as any blockbuster disaster flick.

As Kate Dibiasky, the flustered indignant doctoral candidate who first discovers the comet, Jennifer Lawrence gives a solid if somewhat one-note performance, fluctuating between manic rage and resigned existential depression. Leonardo DiCaprio is fun though somewhat miscast as the spineless Dr. Randall Mindy who is quickly seduced and led astray by his newly minted celebrity status. Though underutilized, Rob Morgan fits well as the consistent voice of reason playing the head of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office. Stealing the entire film, Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill are truly amusing as the woefully incompetent self-serving President of the United States and her shamelessly devoted Chief of Staff son. The film also features in stand-out supporting players Mark Rylance as an eccentric amoral tech billionaire, Tyler Perry and Cate Blanchett as a pair of insufferably vapid morning show anchors, Ron Perlman as deranged out-of-touch military colonel, Arianna Grande and Scott Mescudi as a pair of overhyped star-crossed pop idols, and Timothée Chalamet as a blissfully detached teenager.

Functionally a timely apocalyptic comedy, while Don't Look Up features a wealth of hilarious moments that are ridiculously true-to-life, the film is built to deliver more cynical chuckles than belly laughs. The dread of the world-ending scenario is presented with a straight face, while the characters presiding over these events are played a little too broadly. All-in-all, the picture is more emotionally draining than it is entertaining or particularly insightful.


MID-CREDITS STINGER
Thousands of years after the destruction of the planet, Isherwell, the President, and the elites who escaped Earth land on an inhabitable planet but are soon purused by the local fauna.


POST-CREDITS STINGER
The President's son emerges from the rubble, the last man on Earth, posts an update on social media.


FRAGMENTS
- Timothée Chalamet also stars in 2022 Best Picture Oscar Nominee Dune

- Cate Blanchett also delivers a fantastic performance in 2022 Best Picture Oscar Nominee Nightmare Alley, in which Ron Perlman also plays a supporting role

- Scenes featuring Matthew Perry and Gina Gershon were shot but did not make the final cut


- Cate Blanchett (Hela in Thor: Ragnarok)
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