Don’t Look Up: Film Review
Adam McKay‘s work has always been a mixed bag for me so I had no idea where I was going to land with Don’t Look Up, especially given all the divided reviews. I think I’m in the minority here, but I liked it!
The film begins when PhD candidate Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers a comet and reports it to her professor, Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), and together they realise this “planet killer” is on a collision course with Earth and will wipe out mankind in just over six months. After US President Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her Chief of Staff, son Jason (Jonah Hill), decide to sit on this information, the two astronomers take matters into their hands and go to the press – with mixed results.
McKay’s biting, caustic satire aims high. He tries to address and satirise so many different aspects of modern society that he achieves mixed results and the jokes and barbs don’t always land. His writing is as subtle as a sledgehammer – it’s very heavy-handed in places – and the editing is a total mess, with seemingly random imagery sometimes inserted between scenes and a lot of rapid-fire cuts near the end.
But that being said, I liked what he had to say, even if it was incredibly cynical and bleak. He does a solid job of poking fun at the times we’re in. He takes aim at politics, media, celebrity culture, social media, technology, the rich – you get the idea – so the film has a wide scope and therefore something for everybody. Personally, I liked the following commentary: how celebrity news gets more clicks, attention and social engagement than hard, real news; how common it is for news shows to keep it light-hearted and positive, even in the face of negative information; how the president will put capitalism before the good of the people; and how the word’s third-richest man, Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance), is trusted more than a group of scientists. I have more examples but you get the idea. More broadly speaking, you can also draw parallels to the climate change crisis, the political divide in America, and Covid conspiracy theorists. He goes after it all!
This won’t be everybody’s cup of tea. I imagine this will divide people, much like McKay’s other work, and it will also depend on how you lean politically and your sense of humour. I personally found it pretty funny and laughed out loud on multiple occasions. Admittedly, it’s not wall-to-wall laughs and not all the jokes are effective, but I found it amusing the majority of the time. It is a bit too long though.
I liked seeing Lawrence back on my screen after her acting break, channelling the Lisbeth Salander look. She has a chip on her shoulder and she’s incredibly angry that their warnings are being ignored. Lawrence does angsty and enraged very well. It’s rare to see DiCaprio as an everyman character so I liked watching him play a normal university professor thrust into the spotlight without media training. He’s nervous and unnatural on camera but eventually gets caught up in the attention and loses sight of his morals. He gets an amazing televised meltdown that’ll make you think of Howard Beale’s outburst in Network.
It comes as no surprise that Hill is the funniest member of the cast as the Birkin bag-toting Chief of Staff, who is thoroughly underqualified and enjoying the perks of nepotism. He is hilarious and made me laugh the most. Streep was perfectly cast as the politician who cares more about meeting celebrities and her polling score than actually helping people (I’m gonna guess she was modelled on Trump). She thankfully doesn’t play her like a villain though, same goes for Rylance as Isherwell, who is this quirky enigma.
The star-studded cast list is absolutely huge so I’ll keep the rest simple – Rob Morgan was ace as the sensible and calm Dr. Oglethorpe – who is on Randall and Kate’s side – Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry have terrific chemistry as co-anchors of The Daily Rip, and Ariana Grande made me laugh as pop star Riley Bina. I would usually have something to say about Timothee Chalamet but he was just fine.
Don’t Look Up is proving to be a divisive piece of work and I’m not surprised. I am shocked to be in the liking it camp though! I enjoyed it and liked a lot of points McKay made, but I don’t think it should be taken as a serious awards contender, it’s not that good.
In selected cinemas from Friday 10th December and Netflix from 24th December