A biting satire that directly addresses America’s problem with denying a solvable crisis, Don’t Look Up (2021) staring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as astronomers who discover that a huge meteor is hurtling towards Earth and will end life as we know it. They soon realise that no one-and least of all the U.S government-seems to care. As the astronomers share the news with the public the worlds becomes divided into those who want to prevent the comet and those who simply don’t believe it’s real. Described as a comedy disaster, Don’t Look Up (2021) will distract you from its absurd narrative with its star-spangled cast, but the famous faces can’t stop this burning ball of politics to smack you in the face.
Directed by Adam McKay, the filmmaker who famously shifted from goofball Will Ferrell comedies that are easy to love to withering, self-referential political satires that are considerably more divisive. Don’t Look Up definitely siding on ‘divisive’.
On its face, Don’t Look Up is a comedy about how politicians, the media and the public ignore the reality of a giant comet destined to hit earth and extinguish all life on the planet… while I do think some elements of this disaster comedy worked, it’s commentary was fundamentally heavy handed. The films message is one I agree with, of course, but it’s presentation felt exceptionally unsubtle and downright condescending. Jennifer Lawrence was by far the stand out and Timothee Chalamet’s character was mediocre enough to actually warm to. This movies existence almost makes a parody of its subject matter, it’s a clunky attempt at sending a message when it fact it underplayed its potential and can barely be referred to as a comedy/satire.
”How do we compete with all the noise in our civilisation… are you really more interested in the private lives of your favourite celebrity than you are in the protection of intelligent life in a galaxy of 400 billion stars. Are you really more concerned about that?”
Brian Cox, 2021 | Youtube
FilmProbe Rating 3.5/10
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