Directed By Adam McKay

Starring – Leonardo Dicaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep

The Plot – Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence), an astronomy grad student, and her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio) make an astounding discovery of a comet orbiting within the solar system. The problem? it’s on a direct collision course with Earth. The other problem? No one really seems to care. Turns out warning mankind about a planet-killer the size of Mount Everest is an inconvenient fact to navigate. With the help of Dr. Oglethorpe (Morgan), Kate and Randall embark on a media tour that takes them from the office of an indifferent President Orlean (Streep) and her sycophantic son and Chief of Staff, Jason (Jonah Hill), to the airwaves of The Daily Rip, an upbeat morning show hosted by Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry). With only six months until the comet makes impact, managing the 24-hour news cycle and gaining the attention of the social media obsessed public before it’s too late proves shockingly comical.

Rated R for adult language throughout, some sexual content, graphic nudity and drug content

don’t look up trailer – YouTube

POSITIVES

After the tremendous successes of “The Big Short” and “Vice”, where Adam McKay seamlessly married a dark humor in tone with political and sociological commentary of the sharpest kind, “Don’t Look Up” feels like his most ambitious step forward, bringing to the forefront an apocalyptic devastation that feels like the therapeutic reset button for a world that has aged twenty years in just the last five. The commentary here feels fairly evident in its intent, from an egocentric commander in chief, to the toxicity of meme culture, to even the shallowness of celebrity, stitching together a prophetic nightmare of a world on the brink of disaster that tragically doesn’t feel as hypothetical or dated as other blockbuster disasters. On intellect alone, McKay is fearlessly persistent, offering an unapologetic delve in his reflective glance that pulls no punches, nor spares no victims in the cause of many of the world’s preventable problems that he continues to pry at with vengeful delight. On a visual one, his presentation is enhanced with meaningful editing that not only balances the beauty of nature with the macabre of humanity, but also triggers through off-center framing during confrontation that subconsciously conveys jarring anxiety that plays seamlessly to the urgency and stakes that are continuously hanging in the balance. Acting through these motions in material is an expansive A-list ensemble that is second to none in terms of star power, with Dicaprio’s infectious neuroses, Lawrence’s justifiable anger, and Mark Rylance’s soft-spoken three for one in the combination of Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk, dominating the spectrum. Some cameos are simply that, like Ariana Grande who sings the film’s catchy titular track, sure to earn her an Academy Award nomination, but everyone here feels on board with the distinct level of parody and shenanigans that McKay ferociously deposits, eliciting with them an energetic consistency in approach that not only indulges in the maniacal hysteria of the movie’s tone, but also cements Adam’s value as a guiding force capable of steering so much talent. Finally, the special effects, while sparse in their demand, more than craft enough heft and believability in the concepts of their manufactured outlines, especially during on the ground devastation, which blend seamlessly into the background of the practical set designs and variations in presentational lighting schemes. Because of such, it very much feels like it’s bred from the same cloth of those aforementioned big budget disaster flicks, but never indulgent upon its destruction, affording the material the space and freedom to dominate much of the foreground of the film, until the impactful climax.

NEGATIVES

While the aspects of hilarious comedy and dramatic stakes are earned at distinct moments throughout the film, they never submerge simultaneously in the same way McKay’s previous two films cohesively executed them to perfection. For my money, the humor, while effectively resonating on about 80% of its material, definitely feels like the dominating force here, with the film’s dramatic emphasis feeling stranded, until the film’s closing fifteen minutes. Because these sides are built separately, instead of consistently, it often feels two films, where one clearly attains dominance over the other, with the concepts of stakes and overwhelming urgency never factoring into our interpretations until the film absolutely requires it. Another contributing factor to these diminishing returns is an over-indulgence in run time at 127 minutes, which treads the waters of nihilism while feeling clunky and exploitative during abrupt shifts in the direction of the main plot. Certain conversations continuously beat home the intention with spoon-fed surrealism, while others drastically remove any semblance of nuance and evolution, on their way to jumping towards conclusions that never feel earned or believable in the context of motivations they materialized from. Finally, while the reputable performances are aplenty in an ensemble this wide and eclectic, the one-dimensional characterization does them zero favors in embracing a side to invest in. Typical reasoning would prescribe Dicaprio and Lawrence as the obvious selections, but the lack of backstory and questionable choices make each of them nearly as downright deplorable as the same political and pop culture figures that they continuously spurn, leaving us without a true tragedy in the Armageddon instance that should instill empathy for a world of helpless victims, but instead excites us for their timely demise.

OVERALL

Like the same immense meteorite that soars from the sky during the film, so too does “Don’t Look Up”, but never with the kind of velocity or precision that was forecast with an exceptional ensemble, or the master of satire at its disposal. It’s a good film that wants so badly to be a great one, failing to do so as a result of a flawed tonal imbalance and bloated run time that completely obliterates urgency from the integrity of the experience. Even still, the familiarity with the commentary will prove therapeutic towards audiences in a painfully honest manner that serves as the culmination of everything resonant during the Covid-contemporary, made all the more intoxicating with the depths of the 80-million-dollar production budget bringing forth masterful editing and meaningful visuals to one of the more transfixing directions from McKay’s evolving pallet. Take cover, this one hits Netflix on December 24th.

My Grade: 7/10 or B