Netflix’s Don’t Watch… my apologies, Don’t Look Up, felt like I was listening to the same “joke” on for two hours and eighteen minutes. The repetitive blunt satire was mind-numbing, and in hand, not effective in the political motives it was trying to shed light on. I am astonished that the movie gained so much traction, and can only chalk it up to the devout public viewing any movie that has Leonardo Decaprio, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, and Timothee Chalamet, to name a few.
As I stated, the casting was impressive, so impressive that it translates as compensation. Compensation for a childish plot and script. This immature humor is offensive to myself and a good portion of the general public, considering the serious weight the underlying message of the movie has. This unsubtle metaphor of a film is a direct attack on how the showbiz media silences specific communities in our current society. The topic of media saturation and “fake news” is so fresh and relevant, that the type of political satire used was inappropriate, and lost its power and effectiveness. However many niche communities, such as scientists, resonated with this movie. In our own reality, many scientists feel ignored by the government, and believe when the government ignores science, it leads to destruction. This movie made those audiences feel heard and empowered. This film also directly relates to our current situation of a global crisis: the pandemic and global warming. Just because the film is chillingly relatable to our society, doesn’t make it a good film.
I will now get off my soapbox and congratulate the film quality. Netflix has proved to be consistent in the high quality of the shots and camera work of their films and shows. That being said, some of the film choices were a head scratcher. It is obvious the intent was for the audience to be laughing during the entirety of the movie. However, I was laughing the most during the final scene that was supposed to be sad! The world was coming to an end by an enormous comet, and they choose to show this with clips from the Nature Channel, and clips of the main characters eating a dinner table in slow motion as their house collapses on them again, in slow motion. The scene was disappointingly anticlimactic considering the whole movie was leading to that moment. I am not sure why I anticipated an ending that was good, because the death of everyone at the end perfectly fit the unimpactful, elementary humor of this film. Who makes the apocalyptic death of the world a slo mo montage!? I’ll tell you who: the same people that made a profitable song out of a film that is supposed to relay how the media profits out of and ignores serious subjects. For those who don’t remember, Ariania Grande gave a concert performance as the world ended, and sang the song “Just Look Up” that song is now streaming on Youtube Music. So. Much. Irony. Nevertheless, director Mckay’s message and reasoning behind these ending scenes were to emphasize that simple human connection is all that matters and can still thrive in the midst of a corrupt society, political ideology, and the world collapsing.
Additionally, Mckay wanted to relay how much the fate of the world was in our hands, and did so by harping on the influence that the technology industry has on our governmental decisions. If certain decisions and actions were proactively made, the stopping of the meteor was completely possible, yet that was overpowered by incentive to profit. In this film’s case, Mark Reylance’s baby talking and god complex rendition of powerful geniuses such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerburg, or Steve Jobs. Instead of destroying the meteor, the CEO of “Bash” decided to extract valuable minerals for his “revolutionary tech”. This decision ultimately sealed earth’s fate, and as technology advances in our reality, this example may not be far off.
Now, the casting decisions deserve some attention because it very well may be the singular success of this movie. The stars of the movie, Jennifer Lawreence and Leonardo DiCaprio, did the best with what they were given. I enjoyed watching them both switch between serious frustration and light-hearted comedy, and how they each reacted differently to the stress and the fame. Jennifer Lawrence playing Kate Dibiasky, the grad student who found out about the meteor, was able to recognize and stay resistant to the News and Media and how they went about informing and assisting the world. However, Leonardo DiCaprio playing Dr. Randall Mindy, succumbed to the nature of the News and Media, and became the “Hot Scientist” and had an affair. These opposing character developments are yet another metaphor of how society reacts differently to the news and current events. Not to mention the many other stars in the film that made this show #3 on Netflix: Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Tyler Perry, and Jonah Hill. Meryl Streep, playing the pompous, chain smoking United States President, was also a character that served as a metaphor for former president Donald Trump. Both Meryl’s and Mark Reylance’s creation of their ridiculous characters are outspoken about anti-science ignorance, similar to Trump, and were by no means subtle or clever with other references. Furthermore, Jonah Hill, playing the President’s idiotic and uninterested chief of staff, is eventually revealed as the President’s son. This is another reference to Trump’s son-in-law being his “go-to” during his first year of presidency. Meryl’s and Mark’s entertaining mid-credit scene, which Meryl supposedly improved (funny how an enjoyable scene was off-script), consisted of Meryl’s death by flying carnivor and the implied death of the individuals that escaped.
This mid-credit scene, among many, was the true cherry on top to Mckay’s message that essentially: humankind is screwed. To elaborate, Mckay’s intent for this movie was to use dark humor to show our ultimate fate and doom as a planet if we do not act now and continue to ignore climate change. Many, including myself, completely mistook this film as a metaphor for our other world-wide danger: COVID-19. How could we not? Or the better question being: How could this film have specified its reference to global warming? In my opinion, the lines are too blurred and the timing of this movie was too soon considering the many events and problems of our current world.