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Jan 6, 2022 · January 6, 2022. The film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, tells the story of the discovery of an apocalyptic comet that’s heading for Earth. Photograph by Niko Tavernise ...
Jan 14, 2022 · By Kevin Townsend, Sophie Gilbert, David Sims, and Spencer Kornhaber. Adam McKay’s disaster satire Don’t Look Up is many things at once: a parable of our distracted society, a primal scream of ...
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By Samantha Nelson
Updated: Dec 11, 2021 6:50 pm
Posted: Dec 10, 2021 10:37 pm
Don't Look Up has a limited theatrical release starting on Dec. 10 and will debut on Netflix Dec. 24.
In the 1998 Michael Bay film Armageddon, scientists discovered a massive asteroid on a collision course with Earth and the United States used all its might and ingenuity to recruit a team of heroic misfits to save the world. But after decades of inaction on climate change, a man-made threat that actually has the potential to destroy the planet, and the United States’ disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the jingoistic idealism behind Armageddon now feels like an utter fantasy. Adam McKay updates the script in Don’t Look Up, a brutally dark comedy about how greed, politics, and misinformation will doom us all.
The absolutely star-studded film starts with classic apocalyptic science fiction beats as Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), an astronomy PhD student at Michigan State, excitedly shares her discovery of a new comet with her endearingly awkward professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio). A teachable moment of calculating the comet’s trajectory turns alarming as they realize it’s going to collide with Earth in six months. After contacting NASA, they’re quickly whisked away to brief the president on their findings — and are absolutely appalled by her reaction.
President Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep) is a leader in the mold of Donald Trump, concerned far more with optics than reality. She and her smarmy son/chief-of-staff Jason Orlean (Jonah Hill) dismiss the science and promise to have people with Ivy League degrees look at it after the midterms. That surreal meeting is just the beginning of McKay’s takedown of the failings of all of America’s institutions, which at times barely feels like parody. McKay is no stranger to political films, having broken down the 2008 financial crisis in The Big Short and covered the career of Vice President Dick Cheney in Vice, and Don’t Look Up feels like a continuation of his work pointing out how we all suffer for the benefit of the few with wealth and power.
Dr. Mindy and Kate try to take their case to the press, but fail to gain enough traction with readers to continue the news cycle. Pleading her case on TV, Kate is branded as a hysterical Cassandra, though Mindy gets more time by charming talk show host Brie Evantee (Cate Blanchett). The astronomers and their allies have to desperately fight to maintain the attention of a public more interested in celebrity breakups, a plot driven by Ariana Grande who does a spectacular job in this plot as the pop star Riley Bina, seamlessly transitioning from talking about saving the manatees with youthful enthusiasm to viciously dismissing Mindy and Kate as old and out of touch.
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The Big Short
Step Brothers
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Vice
Other -- let us know in the comments.
A bleak commentary on humanity’s failure to address climate change, Don’t Look Up eviscerates disaster movie tropes and the institutions that fail to stand up for the greater good of humanity. While McKay makes some missteps with his direction and screenplay, it’s an overall strong outing driven by an incredible cast.
Dec 7, 2021 · An all-star cast that also includes Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep faces the end of the world in Netflix's satire of climate crisis and ...
Dec 29, 2021 · “Don’t Look Up,” Netflix’s star-studded disaster satire featuring Meryl Streep alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, alienates those who most need to be moved by its message.
Jan 4, 2022 · Jan. 4, 2022 3:15 AM PT. “Don’t Look Up,” Adam McKay’s dark comedy released on Netflix just before Christmas, has gotten an enormous amount of attention, despite the fact most film critics ...
Dec 8, 2021 · Matt Goldberg reviews Adam McKay's Don't Look Up starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. ... and that the election of Donald Trump was clearly why the filmmaker chose to make Vice ...
