Don't Look Up

Adam McKay's latest film is a sharp, aggressive, hilarious and star-filled political satire.

Contrary to popular belief, Adam McKay has always been a political filmmaker, even during his Will Ferrell days, but it’s his evolution into a prestige filmmaker that is perhaps the most fascinating. “Talladega Nights" was a giant middle finger to the Bush-era conservatism, “The Other Guys” portrayed the portrayed the bad guys not as blue collar criminals but the bigwigs on Wall Street and “Anchorman 2” was satirizing the rise of cable news, particularly CNN.

It wasn’t too much of a shock when McKay shifted to making films that have more overt messaging. “The Big Short,” which was an inside look at the 2008 financial crisis, earned McKay the strongest reviews of his career and landed him his first Oscar for the film’s biting screenplay.

McKay’s follow-up film “Vice,” a scathing portrait of former Vice President Dick Cheney, proved to be much more divisive, despite scoring 8 Academy Award nominations, critics were split on whether the movie was brilliant or a confused obnoxious mess. “Don’t Look” is McKay’s biggest prestige outing yet, with one of the most starry-eyed cast to ever grace the screen with A-list names such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep and Timothee Chalamet (just to name a few).

“Don’t Look Up” is set in an alternate version of the United States (though one that is not too far off from where we are now) and introduces us to astronomers Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence) a grad student at Michigan State and Randall Mindy (DiCaprio) a tenured and liberal-minded professor. When the two discover an asteroid “the size of Mount Everest” is barreling towards Earth that will eliminate all life on the planet, the two are in an utter state of shock.

After quickly getting in contact with NASA, the two are whisked off to Washington DC alongside scientist Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) to speak to the president: Janie Orlean (Streep).

Unfortunately for the three (and really the rest of humanity) Orlean and her son and chief of staff Jason (Jonah Hill) seem much more interested in their own self-image and appointing a new Supreme Court justice than an extinction level event. Dibiasky, Mindy and Oglethorpe take measures into their own hands and decide to leak the devastating discovery to the press, only for them to blow them off and instead focusing on the break-up and soon reunion of pop stars Riley Bina (Ariana Grande) and DJ Chello (Scott Mescudi).

With the entire world in the state of denial, ignorance or simple disbelief, Dibiasky becomes a laughing stock and internet meme for her panic while Mindy starts becoming a bit of a celebrity as the ‘handsome astronomer.’

“Don’t Look Up,” much like McKay’s last two films, is a loud and aggressive satire. The film will surely polarize the public with its delivery, some will eat it up while others will deeply despise it, there will be very few people who fall into the in-between.

Yet McKay and his cast seem fully aware of that and are unapologetic about the film’s dynamic nature. McKay doesn’t hold pack any punches, instead of targeting one side or the other he takes aim at both and proclaims that both are to blame of the end times.

There’s the liberal news/talk show The Daily Rip hosted by Jack Bremmer (Tyler Perry) and Brie Evantee (Cate Blanchett) whose attempts to tell the news feel artificial and fake. Meanwhile there’s the Patriot News Network where the Alex Jones-like Dan Pawketty (Michael Chiklis) seems far more interested in calling the astronomers phonies and talking about bikini models than the end of the world.

The political party of Streep’s President Orlean is never mentioned and her character is blend of many polarizing figures from both sides of the alley including Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. There’s also Mark Rylance’s tech billionaire Peter Isherwell, who is a clear mix of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Joe Biden, who seems more interested in mining the deadly asteroid for resources that could make the rich even richer.

It’s all part of the brilliance of McKay’s script, the film almost plays out at times like a live action episode of “South Park,” using satire to dismantle any and all corruptness in the world. The message’s delivery is very much on the nose with the asteroid being a metaphor for climate change, but instead of just preaching to the choir, McKay’s main goal seems to be changing the mind of those who are either in denial or indifferent.

The film’s tagline of “Based On Possible True Events” is an accurate representation of the film, especially since the world is still dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic. While upon first glance it may seem like the situations in the film are outlandish, the entire point McKay is trying to make is that it’s the current reality we’re living in.

McKay’s directorial style from “The Big Short” and “Vice” is back in full force. The editing style is full of those same real-world footage, deliberately blurry camera work, and quick-cuts are present throughout the film. McKay knows that this style is what helps him get his points across and it’s part of the reason why his prestige films are so memorable.

The film rides the line between comedy and tragedy, while there are a few stumbles where the film’s tone becomes muddled, for the most part it’s able to carry its snarkiness along with providing a stressful atmosphere. The film’s two and a half hour runtime can at times be overbearing and by the end it is felt, but at the same time it never loses its entertainment value. A few more cuts here and there could have made the film perfect, but it still winds up being impactful nonetheless.

Even with its gargantuan cast, “Don’t Look Up” lets everybody have their time to shine or have their moment. Arguably the film’s greatest performance is DiCaprio as Mindy whose arc throughout the film was clearly a mighty task to pull off. DiCaprio has shown his knack for comedy in films like “The Wolf Of Wall Street” and “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” and his performance here might be his best comedy-driven performance to date.

Another major standout is Rylance as Isherwell, who’s rambling and alien-like nature helps hammer home the film’s snarky attitude. Lawrence, while absolutely the co-lead of the film, isn’t given as much to do as her co-star DiCaprio but gives a memorable performance and serves as the audience’s eyes through the chaos. Streep proves once again she is capable of doing absolutely anything in her corrupt, girlboss presidential role. Streep has quick the knack for comedic delivery is arguably responsible for some of the film’s biggest and best laughs.

Blanchett also has plenty of excellent moments with her character walking the tightrope between slimy and sneaky as well as charming and sexy. As for the rest of the cast, Morgan has a lot of charisma in his role as Teddy, Grande carries over the ditsy exterior she brought to her breakout role as Cat in the Nickelodeon series “Victorious,” and Chalamet brings a lot of heart and emotion to the role of Quentin, making an impression despite not having as much screen time.

As for Hill, he’s a riot, but this is far from his Oscar-nominated performances in “Moneyball” and “The Wolf Of Wall Street” and is more along the lines of what he brought to his role as Seth in “Superbad.”

“Don’t Look Up” is a rage-filled film and its satirical nature will surely not please everybody, but under McKay’s assured direction and writing and a committed cast, this is easily one of the very best films of the year and one that will likely be a major awards contender.