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| Images courtesy Netflix |
Director Adam McKay continues his string of successful dramatic films with his latest fictional effort, Don't Look Up. The film premiered on Netflix this holiday weekend to a mixed reaction on social media, one of the very things he's targeting with his satirical doomsday movie about a massive object hurdling towards our home planet.
Where some might take issue with his on the nose delivery, others might totally enjoy the outward thinking and dialogue of the film. It's something we could all use a little more of right now. Taking a look in the mirror through the reflection of film has always been a part of cinematic art. And McKay spends nearly two hours and twenty minutes making this modern day Idiocracy his playground.
With mixed reviews from critics and his viewership, McKay effortlessly skewers the Presidency, our current societal and pandemic woes, and the politicized anti-science stance that is bringing our country to its knees. Abandoning the true life tales that fueled his Big Short and Vice, he treads a fine line between science fiction doom and gloom with a dose of wit that's both intelligent and infinitely humorous at the cost of coming off self-righteous and completely self aware.
McKay takes the seriousness of a global extinction event, turns it on its side and conjures up an intelligent look at how our society is unraveling due to social media, over produced hyper-edited spin news, and a culture that cannot discern between fact and fiction, even when it's smacking them right in the face with an open fist. His obvious wink and nod towards climate denial is heavy handed but totally farcical, with Dicaprio and Lawrence playing off each other with perfected dark comedic timing.
Where some films might falter under the weight of an ensemble cast, McKay takes full advantage of the talent he's working with. Instead of giving his stars a-typical roles, he finds new and interesting ways to use them. Leo slips out of his standard fare for something a bit more toned back as scientist, Dr. Randall Mindy. Jennifer Lawrence returns from her brief two year hiatus as his lead counterpart, Kate Dibiasky. Both heavily rely on each other's skill set and have a great time playing with other heavy hitters like Meryl Streep, one Jonah Hill in amazing form, Ron Perlman, Timothee Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry and Mark Rylance doing his damnedest as an eccentric billionaire that's been tasked with saving the Earth from its own devices.
Fiddling in modern politics, no one is safe in Don't Look Up. McKay takes at all sides of the spectrum. Left and right are both impaled by his sharp narrative. Playing with one side's unwillingness to see the truth that's dead in their path and toying with the other's over obsessive emotions, McKay wants us to see through the muck and find some type of balance.
We've slipped so far from sanity in the last decade. He's communicating something much larger than the film at hand. We need to start finding humor on this god forsaken planet before it gets away from us. Every once in a while, a reminder is needed that there are far bigger things than us.
There's nothing like a little existential threat to make us take an inward look. Outside of the story and talent on the screen, there are some excellent visual effects and artistic edits towards the end that really make this worth a watch. Again, some will definitely find this an off-putting movie, but overall, McKay has scored another home run that has so many things to say, it may require a couple viewings to hard set it in our memory and get its full message across.
-CG
