Don't Look Up: a film of wasted potential

Don't Look Up (2021) written and directed by Adam McKay

Adam McKay is a director rarely praised for his subtlety. His previous movies, Anchorman (1 and 2), Step Brothers, and The Other Guys were a specific type of comedy centred around unapologetically brash over-the-top humour. This is what made his transition to somewhat more serious films slightly surprising. How can the guy who filmed Will Ferrell excitedly rubbing his balls on John C. Reilly's drum kit (by the way, hilarious scene) also film a weighty social commentary which aims to satirise the media's reaction to climate change? The short answer is... he can't, and that is the failure of Don't Look Up.

Don't Look Up has all the makings of an excellent movie, with a sharp writing team, enticing plot, potentially impactful message, and not to mention an insanely talented cast, which cost tens of millions of dollars to assemble (Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, and Ariana Grande all appear in this movie). Nonetheless, McKay's mixed-up tone means that the movie misses the mark, coming off as shallow and out of touch. That's about the worst thing you can say about a social commentary that aimed to smartly satirise the media's reaction to climate change. McKay's biggest tonal issue is that he can't decide whether he wants to make a serious movie or a silly one, and the end result is a movie that isn't either, as it fails to move audiences or make them laugh. There are moments where it feels as though Don't Look Up is veering towards something of significance, for example, Dr. Randall Mindy's live television breakdown towards the end of the movie, which is one of the only moments where the movie utilises Leonardo Dicaprio's incredible gift for passionate outbursts of rage and turns it into a captivating moment of cinema with a clear and defined message. However, moments such as this were fleeting, often interrupted by superficial, un-funny jokes that suck you right out of scenes and disrupt the tone of the movie.

Although climate change is never explicitly referenced, Don’t Look Up operates as a (very obvious) metaphor, with the threat of the comet standing in for the real-world threat of climate change. Evidently, this was a film created to provoke thought and make a difference - a commendable goal for which McKay deserves a lot of credit. However, I think in the grand scheme of things, this movie comes off as far more unaware than it does useful. There is an unmistakable air of vanity which hangs over the movie. The film's 'underlying' message - that humans are carelessly destroying the earth and we should be paying closer attention - is one so obvious and familiar that it holds little weight at all, especially when you factor in that the celebrities involved in the movie are the ones who, considering the power they hold, should be doing more. I will admit, it's hard to be mad at anything which aims to raise awareness surrounding climate change, and as Don't Look Up is already one of Netflix's most streamed movies, it has certainly done more good than it has harm when it comes to raising awareness. Some scenes, such as Dr. Mindy and Kate's first time on The Daily Rip, gave an almost true-to-life depiction of an all-to-common media exchange where real, tangible threats, are shrugged off due to media outlets wanting to keep things light and breezy. Scenes such as this resonate more with audiences because they are so scarily accurate to the type of ignorance we see in real life, and It is because of this, that I can't help feeling as though Don't Look Up missed a trick. When the film works, it really works, but, there are too many fundamental flaws which hold the movie back from greater things.

One such flaw was the film's insistence on wacky, 'comedic' characters. The US president, played by Meryl Streep, was a character who, for me, symbolised everything wrong with McKay's character writing in this movie. On paper, a character aimed at making fun of superficial people in positions of extreme power should have worked, however, Meryl Streep's performance is so over the top and the character writing is so unbelievably unfunny that the authenticity of the satirisation becomes lost. This is where McKay's lack of subtlety really costs the movie. So many high-level actors are completely wasted because they are playing such extreme, caricature versions of the people who they are trying to make fun of. None of Don't Look Up's flaws can be blamed on its premium cast, watching this movie is like watching the NBA all-star game if all the players were being played in the wrong roles and positions, the talent is clear, it's the system which is at fault. Mark Rylance also falls victim to this issue. He plays a billionaire tech guru, who forms a misguided and selfish plan to save the planet. This is a character who because of his extreme power we as the audience should feel frightened of. He should be one of the villains of the movie. Yet, McKay attempts to use him as comedic relief. A bizarre choice given that the character is completely unfunny in just about every way. There is an argument to say that characters such as Peter Isherwell and President Orlean would be far more effective if they were toned down. By doing this, the satirical aspects of their characters would still be present, however, as a whole, the characters would become far more impactful.

A comparison I made whilst watching Don't Look Up was to another recent blockbuster Sci-Fi film, The Martian. This is a comparison I haven't seen anyone else make, so perhaps I'm wrong, but to me, The Martian represents the exact type of movie that Don't Look Up could have been if not for its muddled tone and lack of identity. Of course, Don't Look Up is a satire and The Martian is not (don't worry I did notice), but both are comedic Science Fiction films, with the main difference between the two movies coming from their tone. Where Don't Look Up opts primarily for cheap, plot-disrupting humour, The Martian puts full focus on its compelling story and lets the humour come naturally from within. It's not that The Martian's way of doing things is inherently better, but it is certainly a better fit with the story they are trying to tell. A lot of the comedic choices in Don't Look Up can come off as corny and out of place. Not all of the jokes are bad (although a lot of them are) but it's hard to enjoy any of them due to the way they are shoe-horned into an otherwise bleak story. It's this lack of awareness surrounding the movie's all-around tone, that makes Don't Look Up McKay's most out-of-touch film to date, and raises the dreaded question... has he lost his once compelling comedic touch?