Don’t Look Up (2021)

Don’t Look Up (2021)

 

5/10

Starring

Jennifer Lawrence

Leonardo DiCaprio

Rob Morgan

Jonah Hill

Meryl Streep

 

Directed by Adam McKay

 

Don’t Look Up is packed with satirical silliness and a collective mass denial of something inevitable. I don’t feel the movie is well-written enough to deserve the publicity it has gained, but I can’t deny that the acting is excellent.

The film sums up what you might expect if such an incident were to actually happen, especially with a president like Trump as the leader of the free world. Don’t be surprised if a life-saving mission is turned back for profit due to a last-minute discovery. For me, the movie fails to deliver the necessary impact. Its self-indulgent portrayal gets so wrapped up in its own silliness that it neither thrills nor entertains.

Now, the strength of the cast in this movie is no laughing matter. Every cast member delivers a strong performance, and that’s the only thing I believe the movie truly has going for it.

Imagine a PhD student discovering a comet—a great day, right? The comet is 5–10 kilometers wide, and during its trajectory calculation, they realize it’s heading straight toward Earth. Picture that student and her professor heading to the White House, accompanied by someone from NASA, to inform the president of the impending doom. They expect serious meetings with Madam President and her staff but are treated as a mere nuisance, with their message dismissed as a joke.

Worse still, the president is surrounded by yes-men who fail to grasp the gravity of anything that doesn’t make her look good or line her pockets. That’s the setup for this movie. The PhD student, Kate (Jennifer Lawrence), is shocked by how the situation is being handled, while her professor, Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), gets caught up in the spotlight and loses himself in the public attention.

Meanwhile, the president (Meryl Streep) is busy crunching numbers on how to exploit the comet hurtling toward Earth for financial gain.

The movie waters down all these dramatic moments with outlandish comedy that, for me, never quite hits the mark.

On Rotten Tomatoes, critics are divided, and the audience score is around 80% at the time of writing this review. So, while this movie is highly popular and will be seen by millions, it’s far from being the masterpiece many are making it out to be. I think the hype is more about the two leads in the movie, rather than the movie itself.

You can find this movie on Netflix.