Don't Look Up (2021)

[Eric is Quiet]

Will you look up?

[Reddroast]

Don't Look Up aims its satire at it's target like a shotgun at point blank range  ( vice and the big short weren't subtle films either) and I I wouldn't have it any other way. Armed with a stellar cast the film shows what happens when you scream into the abyss and the abyss rolls it's eyes at you. Some people will say it's too soon for a film like this but I disagree 

 

10/10

Edited December 24, 2021 by Reddroast

[Torontofan]

This sort of hits home really with its tone and message.

 

Way we dealt with covid and as a society where many feel left out has made many people not want to accept truth and deny disaster coming.

[Webslinger]

The nicest thing I can say is that thanks to Hillbilly Elegy, it's at least not the worst would-be Oscar contender of the 2020s so far.

 

Good satire is hard to make, and Don’t Look Up is perfect evidence of this idea in action. After crafting an immensely successful seriocomic takedown of the 2008 mortgage crisis in The Big Short and a divisive but at least somewhat focused and righteously angry examination of Dick Cheney and the early development of the Trump-ified GOP in Vice (not to mention his involvement with the sometimes very acerbically funny Succession), Adam McKay turns his attention on the media, the entire U.S. government and its unwavering commitment to capitalism above all else, and seemingly every conceivable avenue of modern information consumption in Don’t Look Up, yet misses the mark with many of the jokes and more sobering observations alike. The film’s satire is so broad and unrestrained that it practically makes all of McKay’s prior work – even his purposely dense straight comedies – look nuanced and subtle by comparison. Rather than making observations that actually feel cutting, McKay instead opts for the simplest, broadest character types and jokes possible, which makes the film’s critiques of society feel toothless more often than not. For example: rather than making Meryl Streep’s president a well-intentioned but ineffectual Democratic leader – of whom there are many real templates to draw from in contemporary politics – he instead makes her a ditzy opportunist who suddenly lurches into Trump-like qualities whenever the script deems it convenient for her to do so. The film’s general refusal to align most of its characters with any political party also feels cowardly at some points and deeply disingenuous at others. It also takes on so many satirical targets that it never really stays focused on anything long enough to make meaningful commentary on it. What’s worse, the film’s attempts to be genuine later in its patience-testing 138-minute running time fall flat because none of the characters are developed in a manner that makes it easy to care about them on a human level. The highly qualified cast isn’t necessarily bad so much as it is misdirected. Everyone assembled appears to understand their assignment – it’s just that those assignments don’t really work on their intended level. And though I am not entirely sure that it is fair to hold post-credits scenes against a film, it also has two truly awful credits scenes that will leave an even sourer taste in the mouths of viewers who did not enjoy what came before. As a big fan of McKay’s prior work, I entered Don’t Look Up with hope despite the less-than-stellar advance word-of-mouth, but the final product is such a misfire from the ground level that I am hard-pressed to think of a more disappointing waste of talent in recent memory.

 

C-

Edited December 24, 2021 by Webslinger

[Omario]

Ahh Americans. Gotta love em 🙃

 

 

B

[CoolioD1]

very much enjoyed this i actually think the finger wagging smugness is toned down a lot compared to McKay's last couple films. it's more frustrated than anything which i relate to a lot. i don't get that i keep seeing unsubtle as a criticism because... did people think it was going for subtle? humour could've been stronger though i only laughed a couple times. but i was really feeling it when it got more serious towards the end

Edited December 27, 2021 by CoolioD1

[CJohn]

I watched this earlier this month in theaters. Literal trash carried by a few nice performances and a couple of good gags.

[filmlover]

What in the world has happened to Adam McKay? After making his name by creating some of the most quotable silly comedies of the 2000s and early '10s, he branched out into more serious territory to superb results with The Big Short. But the wheels started to show signs of coming off with Vice (his underwhelming follow-up) and now he literally flies off the rails with Don't Look Up, a sanctimonious, largely unfunny attempt at both satire and social commentary whose biggest crime is that it wastes such an absurdly overqualified cast. It must be a testament to his industry power that he has managed to recruit these people (no less than 5 Oscar winners + 2 nominees and a whole bunch of other talented names) for a script this obnoxious.

 

McKay clearly has a lot he wants to say. About how society circa 2021 is so broken that the world can't come together even under dire and life-threatening circumstances, about how every single piece of important information given to the public becomes trivialized by being turned into memes on the Internet, about vapid celebrity worship culture, about how politicians are more concerned about their re-election chances than they are about the well-being of the citizens of the country. He doesn't know how he wants to say any of it. The satire is toothless and obvious, while the messaging is delivered with sledgehammer subtlety. It's a movie that thinks it's deep and meaningful, but in reality, it's neither. There's nothing wrong with social commentary, but don't treat everyone watching it like they're a complete idiot.

 

Then there's that poor, excellent cast. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence are both solid as ever: if there's anything wrong with their performances, it's because of the way McKay has written them. Cate Blanchett is fun as a news anchor in the Fox News Blonde mold, while Timothee Chalamet adds some life once he eventually appears. Unfortunately, Meryl Streep is unable to make her Trump stand-in particularly interesting, while Jonah Hill is annoying and his presence only begs the question of "how did this end up a much worse end-of-times satire featuring him than This Is the End?" Ultimately, all these too-good-for-the-material people are mere puppets for delivering the botched message that McKay is trying to deliver.

 

The ending is definitely bold, even if that was the only way it could conclude (any ending in which the comet missed the planet would've been nothing but a cop-out). But everything before (and even after) that? Yeesh. Recently there's been reports going around how McKay and Will Ferrell had a falling out after years of success together before the former branched out of comedy. It might not be the worst thing for them to try and rekindle their friendship on a project that could prove whether or not McKay is a talented filmmaker who has officially lost his way.

 

C-

[Noctis]

I genuinely enjoyed it. I thought it could get a little uneven and messy, but it was pretty funny and the themes of denial and gang mentality were done really well. Lawrence and Dicaprio were great as usual, with Blanchett a close runner up. 

 

B+

[baumer]

On 12/24/2021 at 12:05 PM, Reddroast said:

Don't Look Up aims its satire at it's target like a shotgun at point blank range  ( vice and the big short weren't subtle films either) and I I wouldn't have it any other way. Armed with a stellar cast the film shows what happens when you scream into the abyss and the abyss rolls it's eyes at you. Some people will say it's too soon for a film like this but I disagree 

 

10/10

 

I don't have time for a long review right now but I agree with everything that you said here. Personally, this is far and away the best film of the year. It's part-satire and part metaphor for everything that we are dealing with right now from government manipulation, the woke generation, a lot of the lies have been told to us about covid and everything in between. This movie hits the bullseye in every single area and holy shit what a cast.

 

10/10

[fmpro]

A big f**k you to the 2021 modern society adt

 

wierd movie that needed to be told. But will anybody listen?

[John Rambo]

Stellar cast could not be utilised well! 

 

Movie had its heart at the right place but execution was a big time failure! 

 

Probably one of the worst movies with some laughs here and there nothing to brag about!

 

D

[The Panda]

An enjoyable, over the top satire about how humanity collectively fails at coordinating societal action against world ending environment threats. The all-star cast all has unique SNL like sketch roles, and it manages to work more than it doesn’t. 

I thought it was a solid step up from Vice but McKay hasn’t managed to get close to the same level of intelligent satire that the Big Short accomplished. That likely stems from not having Michael Lewis source material to pull from.

On an additional note, the film is definitely not as clever as McKay thinks it is. But had the film gone for a more subtle route it likely would have ended up understating humanity’s collective stupidity. Should a comet actually hurdle its way toward Earth, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is how things actually played out.

[SLAM!]

I LOVED THIS. The editing is messy at times, but this film is honestly just jaw-dropping in its scope and its message. One of my favorites of the year despite its flaws in its execution. 9/10

[titanic2187]

I don't get the hate. I agree this is probably the weaker crafted Mckay's film but the satire storyline is still mostly effective and spot on. One may see this as comedy but I would argue this piece of comedy is probably the closest representation of our reality. Given the blending of comedy-approach and close-to documentary storyline, I think we have a new genre called "comentary". 

[Flopped]

I enjoyed it more than garbage like Spencer and Pedo Pizza, despite its flaws. B-/C+