Don’t Look Up (2021)
Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up is the most brilliantly written indictment of humanity I’ve seen in many a moon – a film that, somewhat similarly to It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Idiocracy, exposes hard truths in an intentionally goofy, mocking way. Simultaneously hilarious, heartbreaking, and infuriating, Don’t Look Up holds a mirror in front of us and unflinchingly reveals what we have become, not just as a country, but as a world, and yes, even as a species. It’s a satire in the truest sense of the word, a stark warning of what may happen to us if we don’t get our heads out from up our rear ends. It’s more than one of the year’s best films, it truly is one of the most important. It should be required viewing for peoples of all persuasions.
It’s founded on the premise that a huge planet-killing comet is on a direct collision course with Earth. Armed with this knowledge, two scientists, an astronomy doctoral candidate (Jennifer Lawrence) and a very nervous astronomic professor (Leonardo DiCaprio), desperately try to warn the public that, unless a drastic comet-destroying space mission is carried out, our planet has just over six months left. Their initial attempts provoke a very tepid reaction. Take the President of the United States (Meryl Streep); an unabashed smoker, she’s far more concerned about how her controversial choice of Supreme Court Justice will affect her in the midterm polls. And then there’s the media, which prioritizes the romantic life of a pop star (Ariana Grande) over the harsh reality of the comet. It gets to the point that the doctoral candidate is mocked in a series of buffoonish doomsday internet memes, while the professor is shallowly lauded for his sexiness.
When the existence of the comet is finally acknowledged by the world, it doesn’t lead to any meaningful discussions about altering the comet’s trajectory, or even about taking steps to ensure humanity’s survival. Instead, it turns into a gigantic business opportunity, the Tim Cook-inspired head of a giant technological corporation (Mark Rylance) – who, not surprisingly, was one of the President’s largest political donors – seeking to mine the comet of its natural resources. Only when the comet becomes visible in the night sky is an innately apolitical matter turned into an ideological nightmare; the sexy professor becomes the reluctant figurehead of the liberal Just Look Up movement, while the President and her idiot Chief of Staff son (Jonah Hill) are revealed as Trumpian parodies and spread misinformation as part of the conservative Don’t Look Up movement.
You can see what the filmmakers are getting at: Societies the world over are not only more divided than ever, they have also devolved to the point that objective facts are pointlessly and harmfully monetized and politicized. The filmmakers aren’t wrong. Despite the findings of reputable scientists, sizable portions of the population downplay or completely dismiss the reality of COVID-19. Some actually believe that wearing facial masks and getting vaccinated are left-wing conspiracies for the government to control us. And when it comes to the media, it would seem that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez getting back together is a bigger, more important story than the massive ice shelf about to break off of Antarctica due to global warming, a phenomenon many believe to be a hoax.
The point of this movie is that there’s a difference between beliefs and facts. Just as COVID and global warming are realities that are neither left- nor right-wing, so too is the comet of this story. Making it a partisan issue doesn’t change the fact that it exists and is heading right for us. On the same token, spending vast amounts of money on dangerous endeavors is in no one’s best interest. What did the new space race prove, besides the fact that billionaires have more money than they know what to do with? I’m aware that they never faced the threat of a real-life comet. But it can’t be denied that the capitalistic goal of the billionaires, namely getting civilians up into space, is just as frivolous and exploitative as that of Rylance’s character.
With the exception of mid- and post-credit sequences intended to perpetuate the story’s dark humor, the film ends by stressing the pointlessness of remaining mired in politics and corporate greed. At a certain point, it’s far better to unplug, step back, and see what has been right in front of you the whole time. More vaguely, it shows how much better unity is over division. As needed as this message is, I fear we as human beings are now far too divided, that some of us are too stubborn, too ignorant, or too brainwashed to hear it. I don’t want to be proven right. Films like Don’t Look Up, which can be seen in theaters and on Netflix, are made to save us from ourselves. It’s a cinematic splash of cold water, a desperate slap in the face so that we can wake up. For God’s sake, everyone please wake up.
