When the star cast of a movie includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, and Jonah Hill, you know watching it is not going to be the worst experience of your life.
Well, rationality demands me to acknowledge the possibility that it could happen, so let’s just say the chances are very low.
However, what a stellar star cast also does, is that it increases expectations, making it tricky for the filmmaker to truly impress the viewers. This is exactly where the brilliance of Don’t Look Up lies, the movie is bigger than the actors in it.
The tragicomedy is fast, smart, funny, and real. Many will vouch it’s difficult to achieve even one of those things.
The movie starts with PhD candidate Kate Dibiasky (played by Jennifer Lawrence) discovering a comet that is going to hit the Earth in 60 days.
She is guided in the process by Dr. Randall Mindy (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), and the two quickly inform the authorities about the impending doom as they try to wrap their own heads around it.
The rest of the movie is about the two scientists trying to convince the stupid, the greedy, and the delusional that this is actually going to happen. And failing, repeatedly.
If you are trying to grasp the plot, think of the last couple of years and the manner in which the world has responded to the pandemic. The way WHO has been constantly telling people that masks can save lives, and the way people continue to ignore it.
It’s somewhat similar but more complicated because, in the movie, the stakes are higher – which has historically only increased the stupidity, greed, and delusion among humans.
The government plays down the threat, the media tries to capitalise on it, and social media explodes with trends.
The events shown in Don’t Look Up are comical because they are absurd. Except, they are not absurd at all. That is when they become scary.
An American president undermining the possible extinction of the human race? With all the data available? With scientific evidence at disposal? Possible.
Media glamourising the scientist who calculated the time it will take for the comet to hit the Earth and wipe us out like dinosaurs? Also possible.
That’s just the kind of world we live in. Let’s hope no comet is headed our way.
What writer-director Adam McKay (who previously wrote The Big Short and Ant-Man) has also been able to do with this apocalyptic drama is making a comment on the human need for love. When everything is about to end, you realise it’s all that ever mattered. I found that very touching.
To sum it up, Don’t Look Up is effective and does not have a single dull moment. The movie will keep you hooked and it will make you laugh…when it is not making you worry about the future of our race.
Oh, and Ishaan Khatter has made a cameo in it so look out for him.