Don’t Look Up
Year: 2021
Rating: R
Length: 138 minutes / 2.30 hours
I’ve only recently come to appreciate Adam McKay’s films. Granted, this is a statement about the movies he’s made after 2014—mainly, The Big Short (2015) and Vice (2018). His cynical and satirical take on complex topics like the 2008 mortgage crisis or former vice-president Dick Cheney positioned him for the “fictional” dark comedy of Don’t Look Up (2021). This pointed examination of an apocalypse scenario is strangely possible despite all the bizarre turns the plot ultimately takes. While I can understand how this movie is polarizing, I am in the camp who thought it was one of the best expressions of our current global situation.
As a Millennial, Don’t Look Up speaks to the frustration many of us have with the current political and societal system. We can’t change anything in United States politics because politicians surround themselves with nepotism and sniveling “yes men” who made significant donations to the politicians’ campaigns. Similarly, the politicians aren’t actually in power. Instead, they’re being controlled by the billionaires who are looking to exploit every aspect of human existence. To top everything off, they feed society a constant stream of “news” stories that amount to nothing more than gossip, covering up the important developments in favor of obsessing about celebrities’ personal lives.
While this heavy-handed allegory for climate change and/or COVID-19 has a few weak spots, it resounds with the sentiment of many who see this parody as a harsh reflection of our current world. It feels hopeless trying to inform people who do not want to be informed—which is why I think McKay took such a blunt approach here. The one glimmer of hope comes in the lesson that we should all spend our time focusing on those close to us. Ultimately, if we can’t change others, at least we can spend some time with our friends and family before the world ends.
A hilarious depiction of Millennial frustration, I give Don’t Look Up 4.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
