Spiderboy810

I'm going to say this outright: "Don't Look Up" is an absolutely genius dark-comedy that commentates on all of the worst problems facing humanity today and our lack of attention towards them that everyone on the planet needs to see. Now, normally I save those big synopsis lines of what I think of movies for the end of the review, but much like the giant comet hurdling towards Earth in the movie, I had to mention it now. With that out of the way, on to the actual details.

I'm pretty sure we can all agree that the Earth isn't having the best time right now. From climate change and the pandemic, to greedy corporations and selfish politicians, we got a lot on our plate of "Oh god, we're all screwed". And "Don't Look Up" manages to discuss all of them. There are dozens of ways to look at this movie, including the four previously mentioned. The giant natural disaster (the comet) that, while is clearly dangerous, isn't clearly visible until it's too late is an obvious parallel to the dangers of climate change. The invisible threat that scientists are warning us about is a nice little nod to our current virus-based problems. The billionaire who wants to exploit the coming disaster for the sake of profits is obviously relatable to our corporate overlords. And the {THE FOLLOWING SECTION RELATING THE FILM TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS HAS BEEN REMOVED OUT OF FEAR FOR MY OWN SAFETY}. I'm sure there's other analogies and metaphors that can be derived from the film, but I don't want this to be ridiculously long.

Don't be fooled, the movie isn't just great for it's political and social commentary. It also has a fantastic cast. Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, and Mark Rylance and absolutely nail their characters perfectly. Timothee Chalamet, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Lawrence and the rest of cast also have great performances with some great moments (especially Jonah Hill, he is hilarious here). And their performances are further enhanced by the fantastic writing by Adam McKay, who before this did great work on "Vice", "Ant-Man", and even "Saturday Night Live", so it's fair to say that the writing's pretty good. He even directed it, resulting in some great scenes and shots that really drive the messages of the movie home.

"Don't Look Up" is, in my mind, the most realistic movie ever made. Not in a graphic depiction of violence (the film actually don't really have violence of any sort) or in an overly dark tone (the film is a comedy, of course it isn't overly dark), but in how it holds up a mirror to our reactions towards the world and it's problems. While it's obvious the movie is meant to be exaggerated for comedic effect, it's hard to not think that some of the moments shown could actually happen. And that's the main point of the movie. The tag line for the movie is "Based on truly possible events", and that perfect. Despite how obviously exaggerated it is, despite the swapped names of various brands, one could see how an event like this could happen. It's scary to think that in Earth's final moments, that's how we'll face the apocalypse. And that's why everyone needs to see this absolute masterpiece. I'd say it's the best movie on Netflix, but beating "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" isn't easy. But man, does it get close.

I was in the movie theater a few weeks ago and saw a poster for this movie which I had never heard of before. It had Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Willam Dafoe, and was produced by Martin Scorsese, how had I not heard of it? Then, a few minutes later, I saw the trailer. It looked interesting, showing an army veteran going into gambling while dealing with his past. It seemed like it would be pretty good.

Key word there is "seemed"

This movie started off pretty well, with Oscar Issac's character playing blackjack while, in typical Scorsese fashion, narrating to us how counting cards works. However, it's only downhill from there. The movie seems to have an identity crisis, with two different plots that never seem to mesh together well. Not to mention the fact that either plot really isn't that interesting. The card playing scenes are the best parts of the movie, but it takes forever to get to them.

(Side Tangent: You gotta love how this movie's about someone who learned how to cheat at blackjack, and then spends the whole movie playing poker. Like, it's literally the title of the movie, how do you mess this up? Tangent over.)

One of the few good things about this movie is the performances. While the script is pretty meh, the cast does the best they can with it, and they do well. I mean, they're basically reading nothing, but at least they read it well.

"The Card Counter" had promise, but almost instantly fell on its face. The slow pacing, the bland story, and the general lack of any real substance to anything happening makes it a rather forgettable movie. There isn't much to gain from watching this, so don't feel bad if you miss it. There's much better things to watch right now.