Don't Look Up (Adam McKay, 2021) Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Mark Rylance, Cate Blanchett
A friend suggested that this might be seen as an update of Dr Strangelove. Like Kubrick's film, this one is a comedy of a kind, a satire, though it took me a while to figure that out (knowing nothing about the film before I started watching it), as Lawrence is there from the beginning, and she's not playing it for comedy. Or maybe she is and I can't tell because I'm not an American. Which also explains why I didn't understand all of the dialogue. Being born too early doesn't help either. ... Having confessed my inadequacies, I may as well hand the rest of this over to a few real reviewers. However, I will say that I enjoyed very few moments of this - although most of the actors do an excellent job, especially Cate Blanchett. She is so in character that I had to check the credits! (As I also did in Thor:Ragnarok.)
Peter Bradshaw:
... slapstick apocalypse according to DiCaprio and Lawrence ... Adam McKay’s laboured satire challenges political indifference to looming comet catastrophe but misses out on the comedy ... it’s ... conscious of its ... satirical importance. But the pointed wackiness means that, with interesting exceptions, it’s not really working at its own chosen level of megaphone comedy, which is presented as the only workable medium for its politically serious and (justifiably) unfunny message. (The Guardian)
Chris Evangelista:
And perhaps that's really the ultimate goal of Don't Look Up — an excuse for smug, self-righteous liberals to bask in how smart they are while everyone else is a dunce. This isn't a movie with a message; it's an excuse to point and laugh at the oblivious. I consider myself a liberal person, and I could hardly stomach the weak, unsubtle crap Don't Look Up is peddling. This isn't just a disaster movie. It's also a disaster. ... as a storyteller and a filmmaker, McKay has absolutely nothing to say about the topics he's skewering, and he shouldn't have even bothered to try. This is a hollow waste of time and talent; a comedy whose idea of humor is simply pointing a finger at something and chuckling obnoxiously. We, as a society, don't just deserve better leaders. We deserve better satire too. (slashfilm.com)
Nick Allen:
If Don’t Look Up deserves any award, it’s for the work of its casting director ... This Netflix movie is packed with so many big, expensive names, and it often puts them all in the same room. One scene has Leonardo DiCaprio, Ariana Grande, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, and Jennifer Lawrence sitting next to each other ... The amount of star power on-screen is set up for a once-in-a-lifetime comedy free-for-all, but Don’t Look Up uses this to make one of many anti-provocative jokes about how celebrity messiness compels us more than the death of our planet. Get used to that rise of anticipation and crash of execution if you want to be unsurprised by Don't Look Up. (rogerebert.com)
Cf. Dr Strangelove, Network, Melancholia. Also: The Big Short (Adam McKay, 2015), Vice (Adam McKay, 2018).
Garry Gillard | reviews | New: 2 January, 2022 | Now: 13 March, 2022