Don't Look Up

Two astronomers discover a massive comet heading towards Earth. The comet will wipe out mankind in six months' time if nothing is done about it. They manage to gain an audience with the US President, land on TV talk shows and have their story printed in the media but everyone seems to have other priorities.

On the surface a disaster movie in the vein of Armageddon or Deep Impact. However, it is not just that and is far better than that.

Written and directed by Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice, The Other Guys, Anchorman), Don't Look Up is a funny, accurate examination of the warped priorities and agendas of the people who have the largest control over our lives. Politicians care more about how something will impact their polling numbers than saving mankind, the media cares more about finding something slanderous on a person than alerting people to imminent destruction, talk shows care more about sensationalism, the personal lives of vapid pop stars and on putting on a happy face than on news that actually matters to people, corporate opportunists who use even a planet-destroying disaster to make a profit and in so doing increase the danger (and how the politicians fall in line behind them).

It is all quite chillingly accurate and plausible: from experience you can relate to the misguided, self-absorbed agendas of these institutions and individuals and the powerlessness and irritation you feel in having to deal with them and their decisions.

It is so close to home that it sometimes makes the film irritating to watch: you'd rather not be reminded how incompetent, superficial, self-servicing and nefarious the government, media etc are, how they screw up your life on a regular basis and how likely it is that they will eventually wipe out mankind.

All this makes for a film that is one part hilariously funny and another part scarily serious and confronting. Unlike some other movies I did not find this mix of comedy and drama jarring. In fact, the humour helps point out the absurdity of it all.

By the way, keep watching until the very end. There's two scenes woven into/after the credits that are worth sticking around for.

Spoiler Free!

The cuts are just great, and adds up to the funny nature of the film. So the editing is incredible. We rarely get these kinds of movies, and when we do, they are masterpieces. This one, few things could've been better, and you'll feel what I'm talking about when you watch the movie. But overall movie experience is really good. We need more like this.

I give it a rating 7, and +1 for the editing.

So the point is, it's a good watch, and the stuff I was talking about the editing, you'll understand when you watch the movie. As for the acting, for a movie with a great cast, I don't even have to tell you how good it is.

Leonardo DiCaprio - flawless and channelling his inner Leonard Hofstadter.

Jennifer Lawrence - also flawless. Didn't realise how much I missed watching her in films.

Everyone else - all amazing, all did a brilliant job.

The writing was spot on, though the theme was pretty dark the comedic moments came in at the right time. There were some parts where it dragged a little but it soon picked back up. There were nice little nuances throughout that captured each character.

With such a big cast of absolute talent it felt like there was a danger the film wouldn't find the balance for all their stories, but it does and just shows the skill of the director and editors.

A poignant look at what our reactions might be to such a disaster, indeed what our reactions are right now when faced with a choice between believing scientific facts and verbal garbage from political blowhards and tech giant psychos who have no idea what they're doing.

Satire at its best.

Once the credits hit make sure you hang around. There's a clip near the start of them and one right at the end.

I always like the prospect of a nice disaster film, but I was also intrigued by the fact that this film was labelled as a comedy. Thankfully, this worked rather well, and this film was anything but a disaster (in the metaphorical sense of whatever, you know what I mean!!!)

The cast shone beautifully. Leonardo Dicaprio played the role of a socially out of comfort zone scientist perfectly, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep were equally as amazing, and I loved the fact that they sneaked Timothee Chalamet in there! But really, I think that Cate Blanchett's performance was the best, and she encapsulated that talk show host in a comedic way that really complimented the film.

Cinematography showed nothing remarkable, but I thought that editing was done rather amusingly, as just cutting to random scenes of random things showed the film's comedic nature.

The soundtrack was surprisingly complimentary: the upbeat jazz score reflected the frenetic, relentless storyline, and the comedic storyline. Writing was brilliant, and there were many jokes which made me laugh out loud, something that I don't often do with films!

Lighting: nothing worthy of comment.

Overall, a good mainstream audience comedy, but not really a filmsy film*. On the whole though, it was a good laugh!

*A film worthy of analysis. Technical term.

I may have been slightly kind on the rating I have given to don't look up but I promise that I can justify my choice.

Don't look up is maybe not the most original plot ever but is definitely original in the way it goes about it. If I was to think of disaster movies that take pride and benefit from dark humour this would be right up there. This is obviously helped by spectacular and extremely realistic performances from Leonardo Di' Caprio and Jennifer Lawrence which I know sounds weird as this movie is quite far from realistic, or is it as I believe this is a perfect take on how a government would act towards an extinction level event because after covid I do believe that the government has the power to not give a Sh** about the people which is why I do believe this is an extremely convincing and proper way of acting these roles. Don't Look Up also helps to show us what lengths people and the media will go to, to make sure that know one cares or knows about a life changing event or in this case a life ending event. This is mainly why I believe this movie deserves a 9/10 just because of how I strongly believe a government or object of power would act towards this sort of issue.

Another aspect that is touched upon which I believe really helps the movie is the idea of greed and corruption within a government as in the end the USA goes to huge lengths to make money out of an extinction level event however this is extremely true and I can personally see this happening as technically it is happening right before us with sales of weapons and explosive goods with ongoing wars. With that aside Don't Look Up really sparks fear and question into the mind of the viewer as it really makes you question is this what would really happen if an event like this came to fruition it also make us question the affect that social media has on every single person when there is no hard evidence only theory as in a modern world this happens on the daily however if I was to compare this to the theory's posed in Oppenheimer there was no social media to spread question of if a bomb would work so this movie really goes to show how far back as a race we have gone and how much we have changed for the worse.

Overall, Don't Look Up is a great film but also quite a frightening one as it goes to show what could actually happen if evidence of a mass destruction event was found. And with all of this I believe Don't Look Up is a great film and is a must watch for people who like movies like, 2012 and the day after tomorrow.