Don't Look UP (2021)

 

Where do I start with this film.  It tries to be another end of the world film like "Dr. Strangelove" or "On the Beach", and it tries really hard, and there are some good parts in this film.  It updates our civilization and how social media has affected us and how our politics have become toxic.  I like what it does, but it throws everything in and assaults your senses.  The movie runs 2 hours and 25 minutes, and is in dire need of some cuts.  

The movie goes into detail showing how social media & politics & science have morphed into our culture, and why it will be our downfall.  Meryl Streep plays the US President with a strong influence of the late President Trump administration.   There are parts of this movie that are genius & then there are other parts that really drag on & bring the film down.  I even had myself fast forward through the tedious and non consequential parts.  What makes me say that those parts are inconsequential?  Simple if the sequence does not advance the story and it takes you out of the film itself it's NOT needed.  The performance by Ariana Grande seemed excessive.  Why does the film suddenly become a music video?  The director puts everything in it, and it hurst the film.  The film is about the end of the world, and it so desperately tries to mimic or become Kubrick's "Dr Strangelove....."  It is no where near that entertaining or profound.  

How the film ends is as good as it could be, and I like the line that Leonardo DiCaprio says: "We had everything didn't we?".  I also love the post credit ending of the doomed humans landing on a planet.  My son and I laughed hard, but to wait so long for it seemed so wrong.  The film meanders a bit and it just does not hold my attention or interest.  After all it's a film about the end of the world.  How hard is it to make it interesting or not exploitative.  

What would make the film more interesting would have been to get more detail on some characters and make them more three dimensional.  Not cut out cardboard one dimensional characters which they are.  I know it's a comedy but in the end I felt nothing for these people.  

Don't Look Up has some interesting things to say, but it gets in its own way and in the end we don't care.  The film has an unusual look and it has its merits, but its worst sin is it tries to be too much and it just seems like the filmmakers are throwing everything at us and we've seen this already, only strangely we've seen it on our news programs, and there is nothing new here.  Just same old same old, and that we're all doomed, which is depressing.  How many of you want to see a film that makes you sad because some of it is true.  The slow motion death of the planet seemed dragged out, and unnecessary.  More flair than plot point.  Like I said in the beginning it's in need of some serious cutting.

Kubrick's "Dr Strangelove...." at least had more gravitas than this film.  Also the performances are a lot better, but if you like seeing the end of the world brought to you by our current events you may find this amusing.  I just found it sad, and nothing new here.  But at least the quote "bad guys" get theirs in the end.  That redeems the film in my eyes.  Because at the end of the world no one gets out alive.  Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.