Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Rob Morgan, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Ariana Grande, Timothee Chalamet, Kid Cudi, Ron Pearlman
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Rotten Tomatoes: 55% Critics, 78% Audience
Description: “Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), an astronomy grad student, and her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) make an astounding discovery of a comet orbiting within the solar system. The problem: it’s on a direct collision course with Earth. The other problem? No one really seems to care. Turns out warning mankind about a planet-killer the size of Mount Everest is an inconvenient fact to navigate. With the help of Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), Kate and Randall embark on a media tour that takes them from the office of an indifferent President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her sycophantic son and Chief of Staff, Jason (Jonah Hill), to the airwaves of The Daily Rip, an upbeat morning show hosted by Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry). With only six months until the comet makes impact, managing the 24-hour news cycle and gaining the attention of the social media obsessed public before it’s too late proves shockingly comical — what will it take to get the world to just look up?!”
Short Version:
This is a movie that possesses such raw satire that you’ll spend half the movie chuckling and the other half pulling your hair out. It spears at the heart of America’s current struggle with the intersection of media, political bias, fake news, and herd mentality. Though its attacks may not always be precise, in the age of Coronavirus, it seems an especially potent storyline that doesn’t quite feel like fiction. Somehow, it entrances you, until you can’t turn away
Long Version:
So, Don’t Look Up have garnered a lot of attention. Some reviews trash it for its radical portrayal a certain political party and its radicalizations. Some reviews praise if for its fearless, though possibly exaggerated portrayal of the state of the country, and what might happen in the face of a world-ending event. I think I fall in the political realm of, it would be super nice if the government would stop fighting and make some meaningful change, which often gives me liberal leanings (Sorry Mom and Dad). Keep that in mind throughout this review, as it does influence my reading of the film.
So, for me, this film hit on a lot of my current frustrations with politics and the decisions that are consciously made against the good of the people. In a parody of the president who will not here be named, Meryl Streep nailed her characters, a woman at her own whims, who wields authority over even the opinions of her devout supporters. It is parody, a woman in the place of a man, a doomsday crisis in the place of something more mundane. But when it comes down to it, President Orlean and her son whose bumbling incompetence should disqualify him from being chief of staff to the president. There is a clarity of how far President Orlean’s ideology goes when she leaves her own son in the command center as their last=ditch plan to save the world fails, spiriting herself away in a rocket to escape the dying Earth.
That is the kind of satire this movie finds. With rallies of people chanting “Don’t Look Up” as a meteor bears down on them and Ariana Grande vocalizing over a song calling people idiots and telling them to look up and see the truth. It is a conveyance of the chosen ignorance of swaths of the “greatest” country in the world.
So, on a writing level the satire is the heaviest layer of the film, and it holds nothing back, the movie watches like some extended SNL skit, where you think each parody will be the last, but the truth keeps inching closer in the fictional world, and still the person who first discovered it is caught up on being charged for free snacks (mood).
The overall plotting is so simple its painful. Asteroid about to destroy planet. Main characters trying to stop asteroid, insert obstacles and eventual outcome. The craziest thing about this film, is that the writing never needed to be good, the cast needed to sell it. That’s why every face in this film is one we’ve seen before. These are people who can make you believe what they’re selling. And they did. Each character so perfectly defined and performed that they felt real. Kate with the short trigger, and Dr. Mindy, who’s long fuse is hacked away time and time again as he tries to lean into his logic. These characters represent the real possible reactions to a crisis, from the memes to the pop culture overshadowing, to the governments decision to try and find a way to make money. It shows how opinions are bought and science disputed, even when the truth stands before us.
If this was written about climate change or the Coronavirus pandemic, I’m not sure, but it is the movie interpretation of screaming into a void and hoping to evoke change. In five years it will probably be an introduction to a litany of college courses about anything from American crisis management, to government, to public health.
Could it’s barbs have hit a little more pointedly? Yes, but in the wide, gashing attack at the American consciousness, it asks us to see what is wrong, before the comet hits. Before there’s no turning back. Or is it already to late?
Favorite moments:
- “Ailf” which means Astronomer I’d like to…
- The meme rundown after Kate’s TV appearance
- The president singing happy birthday instead of handling the astronomers forecasting an eminent doomsday.
- Kate getting caught up over the free snack debacle.
- Oprah style “You’re going to die, you’re going to die…”
- The army man screaming at the exercising children
- “I didn’t vote for you.”
- “I had the FBI guy put the bag over your head. They usually don’t do that. The CIA does.”
- The army guy singing “O, Suzanna” as he’s launched into space.
- “I can’t! My head is in a bag!”
- Dr. Mindy on the muppets
- “I fucking love fingerling potatoes.”
- “Can I be vulnerable in your car?”
- That one guy who screamed “I’m doing an eight ball” when the world was ending and everyone else left to be with family.
- The bear in the grocery store.
- Jason crawling from the rubble still holding his mother’s purse.
- The diet timer in space.
All images belong to Netflix and the production companies. Thank you for stopping by and enjoy your weekend!
Megan’s Musings 