Yes, climate change is real and it's going to get worse if those in power keep ignoring the issue. A comet coming towards the planet isn't exactly an apt metaphor for that, though.
Astronomers Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover a comet that's guaranteed to hit Earth within six months. After being laughed out of the White House by President Orlean (Meryl Streep), the two try to get the word out to the public about the impending apocalyptic event.
"Don't Look Up" fancies itself as a satirical take on climate change, politics, the media, and big business in the same way Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" satirized the Cold War or Amazon's "The Boys" skewers big business, media conglomerates, and celebrity, but it doesn't understand how to do it well. It handles its premise to the wacky extreme like an episode of "South Park" would, but it still seems to want to come off as dryer and witty like the aforementioned titles. These two styles don't mesh together.
For example, towards the end of the film when the comet is literally within view of the human eye, the president unleashes her "Don't Look Up" campaign to claim it's all a hoax. Yet she's acknowledged that the comet is real and has announced two separate plans (one an actual way to tackle it and the other a way to enrich her corporate donors) to deal with the issue.
That example illustrates another issue with the movie: its sloppy script. The movie can never decide if the public believes that the comet is real or not, or if they think it's real but want the president's plan to enrich her corporate donor to succeed. There'll always be fringe conspiracy theorists who say things are make believe, but when the president character changes her stance from, "There's a comet coming and we're going to do this plan to make everyone rich," to, "The comet is fake," without explanation, the metaphor begins to unweave and cease to work. One of the few moments where the humor feels right is towards the end of the movie when Ron Perlman's character is firing a machine gun up into the sky at the approaching comet in an act of defiance.
That isn't necessarily surprising, though, because an imminent comet strike and climate change aren't a strong comparison. The wealthy and the politicians they pay have an invested interest in ignoring climate change because the worst of it will happen to future generations. The comet is going to strike in six months; there'd be invested interest to actually acknowledge that immediately because it'll effect them, too.
With this weak, metaphorical premise and sloppy writing comes a side-dish of A-list performers to round out the cast, with Cate Blanchett and Rob Morgan being the only stand-outs. Jennifer Lawrence and Jonah Hill are just themselves, Leo DiCaprio is decent at first as an angsty and camera-shy scientist, but later join Lawrence and Hill as being himself. Meryl Streep is just a Trump-esque figure--the easiest of major world leaders to pretend to be. Mark Rylance is essentially the same character he played in "Ready Player One," except this time his character is bad.
"Don't Look Up," is blatant and groan-worthy satire, sloppily written, performed by a bunch of A-listers who are surprisingly lackluster.
Astronomers Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover a comet that's guaranteed to hit Earth within six months. After being laughed out of the White House by President Orlean (Meryl Streep), the two try to get the word out to the public about the impending apocalyptic event.
"Don't Look Up" fancies itself as a satirical take on climate change, politics, the media, and big business in the same way Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" satirized the Cold War or Amazon's "The Boys" skewers big business, media conglomerates, and celebrity, but it doesn't understand how to do it well. It handles its premise to the wacky extreme like an episode of "South Park" would, but it still seems to want to come off as dryer and witty like the aforementioned titles. These two styles don't mesh together.
For example, towards the end of the film when the comet is literally within view of the human eye, the president unleashes her "Don't Look Up" campaign to claim it's all a hoax. Yet she's acknowledged that the comet is real and has announced two separate plans (one an actual way to tackle it and the other a way to enrich her corporate donors) to deal with the issue.
That example illustrates another issue with the movie: its sloppy script. The movie can never decide if the public believes that the comet is real or not, or if they think it's real but want the president's plan to enrich her corporate donor to succeed. There'll always be fringe conspiracy theorists who say things are make believe, but when the president character changes her stance from, "There's a comet coming and we're going to do this plan to make everyone rich," to, "The comet is fake," without explanation, the metaphor begins to unweave and cease to work. One of the few moments where the humor feels right is towards the end of the movie when Ron Perlman's character is firing a machine gun up into the sky at the approaching comet in an act of defiance.
That isn't necessarily surprising, though, because an imminent comet strike and climate change aren't a strong comparison. The wealthy and the politicians they pay have an invested interest in ignoring climate change because the worst of it will happen to future generations. The comet is going to strike in six months; there'd be invested interest to actually acknowledge that immediately because it'll effect them, too.
With this weak, metaphorical premise and sloppy writing comes a side-dish of A-list performers to round out the cast, with Cate Blanchett and Rob Morgan being the only stand-outs. Jennifer Lawrence and Jonah Hill are just themselves, Leo DiCaprio is decent at first as an angsty and camera-shy scientist, but later join Lawrence and Hill as being himself. Meryl Streep is just a Trump-esque figure--the easiest of major world leaders to pretend to be. Mark Rylance is essentially the same character he played in "Ready Player One," except this time his character is bad.
"Don't Look Up," is blatant and groan-worthy satire, sloppily written, performed by a bunch of A-listers who are surprisingly lackluster.