Don’t Look UpTurns a Global Catastrophe Into Poignant, Universal Comedy

After a recent viewing of Do n’t bet Up , the new Netflix original from writer / managing director Adam McKay , champion Leonardo DiCaprio explained why he did this film . DiCaprio has long been an advocate for the environment and , for years , had been looking for a cinema to emphasise the substance that clime alteration is killing this world and we need to save it . But how do you make that sad subject matter into a good film ?

Sure , there have been infotainment , even democratic ones , but those rarely violate through . A bountiful megahit action at law moviecould get that idea across too , but it would belike be bury in placed pieces and rock ballads . Finally though , the Oscar - success found his resolution in Do n’t expect Up , a moving-picture show that ’s funny without being slapstick , striking without being melodramatic , and brutally honest about the land of the world . It ’s highly improbable Do n’t seem Up will make climate or covid deniers exchange their tune , but it ’s a truly fantastic attack to do so . And in the end , even if it does n’t , DiCaprio is part of yet another excellent , smart , entertaining piece of cinema .

It ’s co - written and directed by McKay ( The Big Short , but also Anchorman and Step Brothers ) . DiCaprio plays Dr. Randall Mindy , a Michigan State professor who , one nighttime , make one of his doctorial scholar , Kate Dibiasky ( Jennifer Lawrence ) has discover an asteroid . But not just any asteroid : this one ’s headed directly for Earth and is all but guaranteed to wipe all living off the fount of the planet . These are the facts and even though they ’re cataclysmic to say the least , Randall and Kate bonk they have to tell the world .

It’s Armageddon when there’s Deep Impact in Don’t Look Up.

It’s Armageddon when there’s Deep Impact in Don’t Look Up.Image: Netflix

That cosmos include President Janie Orlean , played by Meryl Streep ; her chief of staff and son Jason ( Jonah Hill ) ; a fellow scientist named Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe ( Rob Morgan ) ; and many , many others played by the likes of Cate Blanchett , Timothée Chalamet , Mark Rylance , Melanie Lynskey , Ron Perlman , Ariana Grande , Tyler Perry , Himesh Patel , and more . It ’s a dramatis personae that , much like DiCaprio ’s enthusiasm , shows a approximate universal reliance in the cloth and its importance . Unfortunately for the characters of Randall and Kate though , the world is less trusting and they ’re at first met with almost full skepticism and negligence … just as one might look our world to react to tidings of irreversible doom . lento but surely though , the message does get out there and Do n’t see Up take several unexpected and ingenious twists and turns , ranging from laugh out loud uproarious to completely harrowing and downright bleak .

For a film with such horrendous subject matter to not just be entertaining and propelling , but also funny and impertinent without being preachy , is a minor miracle . gratefully , the reconciliation experience almost easy in McKay ’s hands . His cast of characters is so beyond gifted , their power to bounce off each other gives everything a very natural feel . Nothing is only funny or only striking . It ’s all scramble up in just the correct way . sure tantrum are intercut edit out with store footage when there is a solid message that needs to be transmit , and as the situation becomes increasingly dire , the McKay dial back the drama to something more cheering . He ’s five steps beforehand of the audience the entire room and it works wonder .

As for the chief characters , Lawrence ’s Kate is angriest at the world and becomes the recognizable mirror for the consultation , specially as she ’s treated increasingly spoilt . DiCaprio ’s Randall is a fleck more unforced to compromise his opinion and the choice drives him into some uncomfortably saturnine places . Plus , as you ’d have a bun in the oven from two A - lean Oscar - succeeder , both navigate those arcs with nuance and grace . Every emotion and reaction is correct where it needs to be to hold the moving-picture show , and characters , together . Playing the chairperson and her son , Streep and Hill are basically the comic backup and have some extremely perverted , cockamamy view . story might intimate that ’s more in Hill ’s pilothouse but Streep hangs in good order alongside him , remind us that she ’s probably the best actress there ever was .

Meryl Streep is a president with a slogan cap.

Meryl Streep is a president with a slogan cap.Image: Netflix

Along the way , McKay introduces newfangled characters and place that get at the idea of the world ’s inevitable day of reckoning in other ways too . Rylance is a character that ’s suppose to be a Jeff Bezos / Elon Musk type who think money and technology have all the answer . Blanchet and Perry are news boniface who try and make even the ill news lustrous and sunny . Patel is a journalist always looking for the sensationalist angle . Grande is a celebrity with zero perspective . And as each of these characters come in and out of Randall and Kate ’s story , the audience is left to analyze their own lives and thoughts .

Put all that together and yes , Do n’t Look Up is enceinte . But what takes it to a whole other level is its malleable catholicity . After last nearly two years of a deadly ball-shaped pandemic , watching a picture show about hoi polloi not conceive introductory scientific discipline and facts to their own detriment experience all too conversant and relatable . However , McKay write Do n’t Look Up well before covid-19 , about the ever - present horrors of climate change . Then there ’s also criticisms of the media , generational disconnects , embodied institutions , and more . That it work on so many levels allows each witness to engage with it in their own unequalled way , and that only elevates everything happening on screen .

Do n’t search Up is n’t going to be a movie for everyone . It can be a little preachy , a petty inept , and a little on the nose . But those are bare blips on the radar compared to the openhanded one in the midpoint : that Adam McKay and his unbelievable hurl have made a popcorn moving picture about climate alteration that will hopefully have an impact like the one the character are warning everyone about . It open in select theaters December 10 and comes to Netflix December 24 .

Image: Netflix