Don’t Look Up
Synopsis
A planet-killing asteroid set on a collision course with Earth isn’t the only thing that demands collective action in Adam McKay’s political satire Don’t Look Up. After Astronomy Ph.D. candidate Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers the asteroid and Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) confirms its deadly trajectory, the pair immediately report their terrifying findings to US President Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep). But given the president’s indifference to the threat, the two decide to take the advice of Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) and embark on a media tour to get the word out. As they struggle to alert the world about their impending doom, besides government inaction the pair must contend with having talk show hosts Jack and Brie (Tyler Perry and Cate Blanchett, respectively) dilute the urgency of their message; being overshadowed by trending news on social media like singer Riley Bina’s relationship with DJ Chello (Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi, respectively); and the Steve Jobs / Mark Zuckerberg-esque technologist Peter Isherwell’s (Mark Rylance) attempts to turn the potential disaster into a business opportunity. But with the literal fate of the world at stake, they’re in no position to complain.
Analysis
One aspect of the movie I really appreciated was the strength of the cast’s performances. Leading the charge in this department are DiCaprio and Lawrence. The expert level of comfortability with which DiCaprio’s Mindy discusses scientific topics makes him immediately believable, yet the more human aspects of his identity – both virtuous and flawed – make him feel like an actual person. As for Lawrence, her performance is a great stand-in for the combination of outrage and hopelessness felt by many young people today – though she arguably doesn’t get enough screentime. In contrast, the rest of the cast does a great job at hamming up their performances for great comedic effect. To highlight a few: Streep’s President Orlean is repulsive in the way she casually manipulates people she doesn’t care much about with a crocodile smile, presidential son / Chief of Staff Jason Orlean (Jonah Hill) tries coming across as confident yet flounders every time his stupidity is revealed, and Rylance’s Isherwell is equal parts hilarious and intimidating in the way his mind always seems to be distant, yet he will not permit his judgement to be questioned. So, casting Mindy and Dibiasky against a backdrop of such characters highlights the pair’s strong character and morals against the toxic nature of everyone else. And more broadly speaking, this helps the film strike a good balance between heart and humor.
Great performances aside, the film’s attempt at satire overall is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I found the movie’s brand of humor much more nuanced and grounded than some critics. A president who puts more thought into political optics than what the science says, a general public more tuned in to celebrity news than pressing issues, and a Silicon Valley titan who feels their algorithms make them a god are features of our world that either formerly or still exist today. Poking fun at such people or trends – along with the detrimental societal impact they have – meant the film wasn’t “coming out of left field” so much as it was coming out of our backyard. On the other hand, there were multiple times where the film was trying too hard to be funny. The characters of burnout Yule (Timothée Chalamet) and problematic astronaut Benedict Drask (Ron Perlman) never got a real laugh out of me and felt unnecessary. There’s this weird running joke between Dibiasky and Oglethorpe where they try to figure out why General Themes (Paul Guilfoyle) charged them to get food from the White House’s kitchen that never really pays off. Additionally, there were scenes where jokes simply didn’t land because they were either too absurd or too on the nose – though those were few and far between. So you’ll end up laughing every now and then, but the movie will start to feel its length when punchlines to jokes wash over you.
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The film is also a pretty good cautionary tale about the consequences of society’s inaction towards major issues. Similar to the movie’s nuanced humor, the fact that the issues the film addresses are so obvious today makes its critique of them feel all the more valid. Whenever the film laid out an obvious critique of modern-day society, my first instinct was to immediately dismiss the premise as “too out there” – even if the criticism conformed to my political views. But then I would stop and wonder whether the movie was exaggerating at all, before finally realizing that the film was pretty much right on the mark. This was especially the case with the US government’s inaction towards the asteroid. At first I thought, “with a threat that obvious, there’s no way that potential political gains and capitalistic incentive would result in such inaction,” but then I remembered how that response pretty much characterizes that of the US’s towards climate change. Another reason why the film is a compelling political cautionary tale is it shows the consequences of the government’s inaction towards diverting the asteroid on everyday people. It was heartbreaking to watch everyone go from doubtful during the first ¾ of the film to frightened and hopeless in the last quarter. It was even more depressing to follow Dr. Mindy and Kate as they tried coping with the situation. We watch them struggle in spurring the government into action and alerting the public, and we see them spend their final moments with their loved ones. So seeing the asteroid actually strike the Earth, engulfing every living thing in mile-high waves and flame on it, is one thing. However, because of how attached we grow to Dr. Mindy and Kate, seeing their deaths strikes a very personal and haunting tone. There may not be an asteroid headed to Earth at this moment, but imagining a preventable disaster like climate change having a similarly deadly impact on us all felt gut-wrenching.
At the same time, encouraging reflection is pretty much the extent of the film’s messaging. (I’m mainly talking about the movie’s critiques of the proliferation of fake news, the unchecked growing influence of Silicon Valley, and the general public’s lack of awareness concerning important issues, not its effective critique of the US’s inaction towards climate change.) The movie doesn’t highlight any previously unknown threats, and the stances it takes on the issues it highlights aren’t new. Even to say the movie has “stances” may be exaggerating: the film only says “Look at this! This is crazy, right?!” rather than hint at a way to solve these issues. So by the time the movie ended, I hadn’t learned anything new or heard an alternative take on an issue. And if the film was hoping to change people’s attitudes and beliefs towards such issues by repeating its simple “Just look up / pay attention” message, its goal was too ambitious.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Don’t Look Up is a fine way to spend a Saturday night. It features great performances and an ok political message, just know that it never really hits a strong comedic stride and you won’t feel changed by the time the credits roll. Put simply, going into this movie you already know whether you’ll enjoy it or not.