Don't Look Up

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 am pretty sure once we go down we are going to go down like this. The way nowadays social media Earth is going on now and the way we handle Covid this is exactly how we are going to finish our lives on this planet. This is not a fiction, this is a documentary.

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.

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.

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.