Don’t Look Up – Movie Reviews by Ry!

Don’t Look Up – Subscribe and Like: A Satire of Life

Storytelling is a boundless journey only hindered by the writer’s mind.  When creating a path to build characters and story, a creative thought can be fruitful and faulty.  What matters the most is if you hit that right mark … you have a genuine tale of tales.  In this review, I look at the latest Netflix film written and directed by Adam McKay.  Mixing in his unique sense of humor, he creates a tale that looks at the callous nature of society.  With an ensemble cast surrounded in a worldly satire, Don’t Look Up is a story of followers and likes … a blunt reflection of our own ideocracy.

The story begins when two astronomers, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discover a comet heading straight for Earth.  In hopes of trying to save our world, they embark on a media tour to get the word out … only to realize the world just doesn’t care.  From the beginning, you get a general setup of a Sci-Fi/Disaster tale, but it slowly moves away from this and builds a satirical journey about today’s world.  Knowing the inevitable should produce a sense of caution, but the complete reverse happens.  As Randall and Kate speak about the logistics, every other entity (government, news outlets, social media) brushes off the obvious and spins their own truth for personal gain.  As they continue to speak for science, you witness a society bound to individualized antics of greed and selfishness.  This is highlighted with the ensemble cast (Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchet, Tyler Perry, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, etc.), leading to the rhetorical question of ‘what is in it for me’.  The fight for truth against a 24/7 media cycle is a constant web that pushes beyond cliches with a blending of whimsical conversations, blunt humor, satirical outtakes and over-the-top caricatures.  It is both crude and comical, creating a sense of levity in the irony of an inevitable demise. 

As the days are numbered for Earth, the attitudes towards truth become irrelevant to the disguise of the perfect image.  The attitude is individualized, creating different consequences for choices made by each character.  As the absolute becomes obvious, it is the dynamic of each character within the satirical setting that raises above the material of predictability.  This leads into a third act that is somber but strong, creating a climax that brings the satirical elements full circle in our own reflection.  Don’t Look Up is an intricate but hilarious satire of our own social designs.  If you are a fan of Adam McKay, satires or the ensemble cast, this is one for you.  It is available on Netflix, but it would be a fun time at the theaters.    

Full Score – 4 out of 5 (Full Price)