Two little-known astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth. The comet is discovered six months and 14 days before it’s due to crash into the planet and destroy us and everything we’ve ever known. What happens when humanity is given the opportunity to save our planet – or die? This is the premise of recent Netflix release “Don’t Look Up”. Upon initial glance, the storyline sounds like an overdone dystopian disaster movie. But no, there’s nothing far-fetched about this movie. Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio portray humble scientists and Meryl Streep plays the part of Donald Trump in a wig; it may as well be a documentary that happens to have a bunch of sexy headliner actors in it. This controversial film has received a lot of flak since its release, with reviews polarizing into low Rotten Tomatoes Rating and Oscar nominations; here’s my take on it.
Let me say this right off the bat: I didn’t particularly enjoy this movie. The dark satire and aggressive humor made me laugh in a hysterical way that just barely covered the ickiness I felt at the realness of it all. I didn’t feel like I was watching some weekend Netflix feature; I felt like I was watching the news, and everybody knows that nothing good is ever covered on the news. And yet I couldn’t look away. If I’m being completely honest with myself, the only thing that kept me from bailing was the star-studded cast. And maybe that was the intention, to lure people into sitting through a nightmarish political comedy that warns them of their own demise. When Leo and J-Law set out to warn the world about the comet, nobody takes them seriously. They are stood up by the President of the United States of America, they are laughed at by talk show audiences, and they’re even made into memes. Meryl Streep’s character, President Orlean, goes so far as to launch the “Don’t Look Up” campaign that tells Americans to act as though the comet hurtling towards them doesn’t exist (ring any bells?). Like what is portrayed in the movie, our society would rather have uber rich people with plenty of clout tell us what to do rather than listen to the average scientist.
The irony of this film is obvious, but is it so obvious that it insults the viewer? The indignance we feel after watching what seems to be a two-hour long crap on humanity is natural; defensiveness is a common response to being called out or exposed. However, regarding humanity’s greatest threat (the climate crisis), many would argue that we are loooooong past subtlety—there simply isn’t time. We cannot waste time trying to spin climate change as something that isn’t our fault simply because we don’t like feeling ashamed. The faster we own up to our contributions to the climate crisis, the sooner we can mitigate the damages we’ve caused. But the alternative, refusing to “look up” and acknowledge what will happen if we don’t act now – is illustrated quite graphically by the end of the movie. While I won’t spoil the ending, suffice to say you won’t be surprised.
There are so many layers of irony wrapped up in this movie, it’s hard to know which ones were intentional and which ones were not. In some ways the media attention from the film took away from the message itself, people are too busy ogling over Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi to focus on the real issue, climate change. But maybe that is the message. Maybe the film is a stinging reminder of how easily we humans are distracted by shiny objects. Perhaps the film was simply meant to act as a mirror we can’t stand to look at. So it’s okay to hate “Don’t Look Up”. There’s a reason it’s not listed under the “feel-good” genre on Netflix . That being said, we can still respect the movie for what it tries to convey: that we need to stop thinking of only ourselves and start putting the planet first.