Don't Look Up Review

A common criticism of certain types of film is that they are too clever for their own good. Adam McKay's previous work, Vice, received such comments and filmmakers like Chris Nolan hear it for most of their output. And I usually disagree, complimenting the audacity of the storytelling. But watching Don't Look Up, the phrase kept repeating itself in my head over and over, it just tries to be too clever.

The premise is sound: take the disaster movie trope, parody it, offer social commentary and criticism of current politics, and get people thinking. But the first rule of a spoof is that it must be funny and this film fails to deliver. With the exception of Cate Blanchett's morning show presenter - who is spot-on and brilliant - all the characters are poor caricatures: exaggerated and unbelievable so that they don't ring true, but not pushed far enough to be humorous. The film also suffers from one of the aspects it's trying to make fun of, the huge star cast, making it difficult to imagine how they could cram any more big names into the line-up. I mean, really, what was the point of Timothée Chalamet's character? It seemed he was only there so that, god forbid, the main female character didn't face the end of the world as a *gasp* single woman! But unfortunately, the formidable acting royalty at hand wasn't given the chance to shine due to poor directing. When the likes of Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence are turning out bad performances, and even Leonardo DiCaprio and Sir Mark Rylance are no more than competent, you know the blame lies with the overseer!

The whole film felt too on the nose, punching us in the face constantly rather than trusting the audience to read between the lines. There was no subtlety, it was just the equivalent of someone shouting at you for the better part of 2 hours. And it manages to commit the cardinal sin of moviemaking: it was boring. If I'm watching an Oscar-nominated film from the mind of McKay, I should be hooked, not scrolling my phone in an effort to make it to the end.

All in all, this felt like a self-righteous pat-on-the-back from Hollywood that left the rest of us out of the joke. Did not enjoy.


Conclusion: Nuh-uh [what's this?]


Don't Look Up came out in 2021.

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