Don’t Look Up 5 Ways The Satire Hit Its Mark (& 5 It Didn’t)

Don’t Look Up: 5 Ways The Satire Hit Its Mark (& 5 It Didn’t)

Don’t Look Up has world-class performers & occasionally nails its dramatic intentions, but struggles majorly in some aspects.

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First making his mark as a head writer on Saturday Night Live, writer/director Adam McKay has earned a sizable reputation as a comedic film director. Hits like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, The Big Short, and Vice demonstrate why McKay is a sought-after talent at the box office. Particularly adept at triggering laughs, McKay has demonstrated a penchant for timely social commentary and excellent use of the talented actors he has in his films.

The filmmaker’s latest project, the Oscar-nominated Netflix Original Don’t Look Up, stars such heavy hitters as Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep yet is not one of McKay’s best offerings to his audience. While the film seemingly can do no wrong with the performers it has and occasionally nails its dramatic intentions, its message struggles to break through amidst extraneous side plots, at times clumsy writing, and cartoonish, one-note caricatures for some of its cast.

10 HIT ITS MARK | The Leads Give Endearing Performances

Don’t Look Up mainly focuses on a small cadre of characters: Kate Dibiasky, Dr. Randall Mindy, and Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe played respectively by Jennifer Lawrence, DiCaprio, and Rob Morgan. These protagonists are cogs in the governmental scientific machine, a subset that seems largely ignored within the film and real life.

The movie may falter in other regards, but the performances of the main trio remain stellar throughout. If it weren’t for them, their characters would likely come off as thinly written like the film’s other personalities. The actors lend their characters an earnest warmth that makes viewers root for them against the massive political machine they face.

9 DIDN’T | The Writing Is Heavy-Handed

There are some lines in Don’t Look Up that are so obviously allegorical for the real world that it may as well be a documentary on the subject. Dealing with themes of media and politics, particular moments that would be powerful are robbed of their legitimacy when viewers are taken out of the film with a sermon.

Even if those watching agree with the overall message, the clunkiness can be grating. A moment where Lawrence’s Dibiasky flatly lays out the politics of President Orlean’s (Meryl Streep) decision to reverse their stance on the significance of the meteor – along with DiCaprio’s Mindy’s heavy-handed freakout on live television – are markers of amateurish scripting.

8 HIT ITS MARK | The Film Accurately Ridicules Culture, Media, & Politics

Despite its heavy-handedness, it’s lunacy to deny the movie’s critiques of media, politics, and society as fiction. Don’t Look Up acts as a clever parallel to the current state of the climate crisis and succeeds in portraying the depressing reality of it all. Watching millionaires on social media and television obfuscate & deflect with frivolous concerns makes for a chilling indictment of where people place their attention. The titular political catchphrase that graces the hats of President Orlean’s supporters is a darkly-comedic insight into the “solutions” that are offered by the leaders in government in regards to the climate crisis.

7 DIDN’T | The Tonal Shifts Are Jarring

Adam McKay excels at comedy and occasionally hits a dramatic note but wrestles with balancing the two out in his movies. Don’t Look Up suffers from this particular malady, at times feeling like a brilliant assessment of society and then abruptly shifting to scenes of laughable antics viewers may see in the Scary Movie franchise.

It’s unclear whether the film is even officially a parody even though it plays out like one frequently. Moments of levity should be expected in a dramatic picture, but not to the point of reminding the audience of Adam Sandler’s latest cash-grab. Don’t Look Up’s themes are too often suffocated by the mindless comedy around the edges, making for a particularly-exhausting viewing.

6 HIT ITS MARK | The Film Is Beautifully Shot

McKay is an experienced director and it seems most of that has gone to his camerawork: the film has some gorgeous shots sprinkled throughout that are refreshing, given the immense amount of forced laughter a viewer may feel obligated to bellow. Perhaps the most striking shot is of DiCaprio’s Mindy watching the comet from the street, having exited his vehicle with the majority of the pedestrians around him. Along with the ending montage of the world being destroyed, McKay manages to push through moments of brilliance and capture the audience’s attention even after a good two hours into the experience.

5 DIDN’T | Peter Isherwell Is Goofy & Horribly Realized

Peter Isherwell is McKay’s personification of billionaires that rule the world through their political donations. Played by actor Mark Rylance, Isherwell serves as a major misstep in Don’t Look Up’s execution. It’s unclear if this is due to directorial intent, but Rylance’s delivery borders on feeling like a caricature from a particularly-cheesy SNL sketch.

This would work if the rest of the movie felt the same way, but it doesn’t… Don’t Look Up demonstrates maturity in its themes and boasts some truly dramatic moments. Isherwell is almost intensely out-of-place and remains absolutely unbearable throughout.

4 HIT ITS MARK | The Jokes Mostly Land

Aside from a few moments that go on for a little too long, Don’t Look Up manages to elicit enough laughs to warrant at least one viewing. Most of them are courtesy of DiCaprio and Lawrence’s commitment to their characters, but Jonah Hill also garners a chuckle with his clear parody of Donald Trump Jr.’s brash public statements and arrogant demeanor. The star of the film, however, remains Lawrence’s in-universe meme that designates her the “we’re all gonna die!” girl. While serving as a mouthpiece for the scientists’ frustration with the media, the line also ironically acts as a cathartic release of frustration regarding the quality of the movie to that point.

3 DIDN’T | The Film Struggles To Focus

Don’t Look Up starts as a scientific thriller, resting on the shoulders of Dibiasky and Mindy as they race to tell the president about the impending threat of the comet. If a viewer were to leave at this interval and return to the film halfway through, they’d think they were watching an entirely different story. Distracted by its mundane side characters, the film devolves into an aimless story that loses its message as more characters and cameos are introduced for seemingly no purpose. The random introduction of Timothee Chalamet – absurdly miscast as a skater kid – epitomizes the primary issue with Don’t Look Up: gifted with tremendous actors, the film forgoes the compelling story in favor of a jumbled mess of a comedy.

2 HIT ITS MARK | The Visuals Are Arresting & Sobering

Along with McKay’s cinematography, the artists responsible for his visual effects should receive immense praise for their work. Occasionally during the first half of the film (conspicuously absent in the second), viewers are treated to a brief shot of the meteor slowly advancing on Earth before returning to the everyday mundane tasks of the politicians and scientists.

It’s a captivating idea that keeps the stakes clear while also illustrating the aforementioned banality of the squabbles being perpetrated on Earth. The humbling experience often spoken of by astronauts returning from space serves the film well here, reminding viewers that no fight is bigger than the plan literally being destroyed by a COMET (or CLIMATE CHANGE).

1 DIDN’T | The Second Half Drags

Don’t Look Up loses its focus in the second half and, as a result, drags significantly after Isherwell turns the rocket around and implements his scheme. With no more themes to speak of and nowhere to go, Don’t Look Up wanders through the void of its world while viewers are simply left to wait for the end. Perhaps this is the genius of it: just like the helpless scientists with the comet, viewers are left to be put out of their collective misery by the credits rolling. Don’t worry, the audience can look up… the movie is over.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/dont-look-up-good-and-bad/

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