Don’t watch ‘Don’t Look Up’
Cast of Don’t Look Up (Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep and more) pose in promotional photo.
Don’t Look Up, written and directed by Adam McKay, is about two astronomers who try to convince the world that an extinction-level comet is headed towards Earth. But more than that, Don’t Look Up is about the willful ignorance of the American people regarding climate change. While it’s notable that the film attempts to shed light upon this issue, the film is trying to do too much. It fails to accomplish the most important thing: to present the audience with a compelling story.
As a movie, Don’t Look Up’s characters fail to interest me. They were unlikable, pointless, and annoying. The characters in this film serve as caricatures of themselves and not as real people. Many of the character’s involvement in the story meant nothing other than to make a political statement. A perfect example of this is Timothee Chalamet’s Evangelical Christians character. He does not help drive the plot in a meaningful direction at all. His character is just intended to show that you can be Christian and still believe in science.
The main characters who have some purpose barely change at all from the result of action. The ones who do change do so in either a heartless manner or revert back to their old ways too quickly.
The film doesn’t feel like a cohesive story. The scenes barely flow into one another. This seems to be the case because the individual scenes seem to serve a certain social critique rather than a story. One of the many cases is the unfunny waiting room scene where a general rips the astronomers off. There is no purpose to the scene other than that generals are greedy.
The other reason is due to the nauseousating editing style. Its flashy quick cutting style makes a viewer sick to the stomach. Oftentimes, its leaping of time confuses the audience as well.
Don’t Look Up has one of the most stacked lineups of actors possible. However, there is really only one performance that stands out: Jonah Hill’s.
Jonah Hill was hilarious as the nepotistic Chief of Staff, Jason Orlean, who clearly mimics the slick sleaziness of Donald Trump Jr.
As a political take on climate change, Don’t Look Up does a decent job. It adequately represents how elite political groups, who hold power, can manipulate their voters. It also highlights how certain political groups incite culture wars in an effort to uphold the status quo.
However, there are inaccuracies. For example, the socially awkward billionaire techie akin to Elon Musk, Peter Isherwell, is accurately portrayed, but with little nuance. Yes, Peter Isherwell sounds, acts, and looks similar to the pseudo-futurist Elon Musk. Yes, his futuristic products replace government funded works and fail ( Ex: High speed rail vs. The Hyperloop). Yes, he has the government’s business party in his pocket.
However, there is a distinction between Elon Musk and Peter Isherwell that Don’t Look Up doesn’t detail. Elon Musk is not a conservative, but a neoliberal. His projects are promoted hugely by environmental liberals.
Yes, the fictionalized conservative government rejects beneficial NASA solutions in favor of private profitable ones. However, the film doesn’t detail that in reality liberal politicians are also culpable.
While speaking as if he is the arbiter of green energy, Joe Biden has in fact signed 3,500 oil and gas drilling permits in his first year: 900 more than Trump.
Don’t Look Up reaches for the stars to be a classic satirical take on our modern day willful ignorance, yet it falls short to actually deliver a compelling story and leaves out nuance to it’s political take.
Overall: 2.25/5
Story: 2/5
Performances: 2/5
Visuals: 3/5
Soul: 2/5
SCALE
1 – Painful to watch
1.5 – Terrible
2 – Not good
2.5 – Alright…
3 – Good
3.5 – Great
4- Awesome
4.5 – I love it!
5- The best