The sky is falling. No, for real. “Don’t Look Up” actually takes this expression seriously in Adam McKay’s dramedy parody about the state of our world and current political climate. When PHD student, Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), discovers a comet in space, initially it is a joyous occasion. There has yet to be a comet of this size sited in space since the time of the dinosaurs. As the staff of Michigan State temporarily celebrate their newfound breakthrough, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) soon discovers that the comet is headed straight for Earth. With a 99.75% certainty that it will hit the planet, the results are catastrophic. World ending, population killing catastrophic.
As soon as they realize the destruction potential that they have unearthed, they immediately begin on a nationwide campaign to alert national leaders and the public that in just six months’ time, the world as we know it, will cease to exist. And to no one’s surprise, their press tour goes horribly and terribly wrong.
After meeting with President Orleans (Meryl Streep) resembling a cross between Donald Trump and Selina Meyer, the words of caution from two scientists out of a Midwestern school like Michigan State, don’t really sound the alarms of national emergency. Deciding to skip over the conversation and dub them doomsday criers, Kate and Randall try another route through the media. This time, they try alerting the news on a Daily Talk Show where they are taken even less seriously than the President. It’s not until talk about the mid-term elections threaten Orleans hold on the Oval Office that they decide to act.
There is…. a lot going on in this film and despite McKay’s attempts to make it a light, parody, it seems to go in so many different directions, that makes it hard to keep the plot line straight. Instead, they throw in an Elon Musk type character (Mark Rylance) to highlight the dangers of technological billionaires getting caught up in politics. Ariana Grande is in the film for absolutely no point at all other than to have a “Save the World” concert and release a new single and Timothée Chalamete doesn’t even show up until the last twenty minutes…of a two-hour and twenty-minute film run time.
Despite McKay’s more established projects like “The Big Short” or even “Vice”, “Don’t Look Up” seems like a huge miss that is too scattered at times you don’t know where to look (get it?). Perhaps the most depressing reminder of the entire movie, isn’t necessarily the fact that a comet is heading to wipe out the planet (spoiler alert, it does), it’s the fact that nothing on the movie in front of me felt outlandish…it felt real. Which that, in it of itself, is a sad reminder of the current era that we are living in. An era where people would quite literally keep their head down to avoid the truth right in front of them.
Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio were and are the best part of the film, everything else to me felt…corny.
"Don’t Look Up" is out now in select theaters and will hit the streamer, Netflix, at Christmas.
Movie Score: 5.5/10
And that’s the sitch.
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