Review: Don't Look Up

Image courtesy of Netflix.

Adam Mckay's star-studded disaster comedy "Don't Look Up" boasts a roster of extremely talented actors and says a lot of things about the current stupid state of our nation with which I agree — but it, unfortunately, doesn't do so in a manner that's particularly engaging or, for a comedy, particularly funny. It's righteously angry, but the jokes never land because, well, most of them are so obvious and aren't exactly played with humor in mind.

The film's premise is that two low-level astronomers (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) discover the presence of a comet that is several kilometers wide and barreling toward Earth. They figure if they alert the president of the United States (Meryl Streep), a Donald Trump-type of figure who only cares about their poll numbers, then a mission can be sent to destroy the comet before it reaches the planet.

But their message falls on deaf ears as President Orlean and her obnoxious spokesman/son (Jonah Hill) try to think how they can use the comet to help the president's reelection campaign. Meanwhile, a billionaire Elon Musk type (Mark Rylance) is devising ways to monetize the comet and use it to sell products. At the same time, the two astronomers attempt to go to the media with the story — and the two empty headed talk show hosts (Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry) they speak to gloss over the story because it's not a cheerful one.

As expected, large segments of the U.S. population don't believe the comet is real, and against their best interests the president convinces some of them that it hitting part of Earth would be good for the economy. The story doesn't take off in the press because most viewers are more interested in a story involving a vapid pop singer's (Ariana Grande) engagement.

As I'd mentioned, all of the things that "Don't Look Up" points out — Americans' refusal to believe what's proven by scientists and right in front of their eyes, the vapidity of the modern media and how stupid stories are what resonate with the general population, and the use of information as warfare in the two-party political system — are all valid, and appear ripe for lampooning.

But McKay's recent films are instructive as to why this film doesn't work. "The Big Short" was a, for lack of a better phrase, smarty pants approach to explaining the 2008 economic downturn. I don't use that phrase pejoratively — the style that McKay employed for that film (big stars explaining esoteric Wall Street jargon, etc.) worked to the film's benefit. When he tried this style again several years later with "Vice," which chronicled former VP Dick Cheney's life, it didn't work quite as well.

"Don't Look Up" feels like his angriest politically-charged comedy to date, but the anger — though well deserved — overshadows the comedy. It's just not that funny. There's a scene in which DiCaprio blows up at the talk show hosts, and it seems as if the filmmakers wanted it to feel like that pivotal moment of being mad as hell in "Network." But despite DiCaprio's efforts, it feels too obvious. A later moment in which he shouts "we're all going to die" on a "Sesame Street"-like show is much funnier.

The film — which runs nearly two hours and 20 minutes, which would be long for any comedy — feels less like a satire than a harangue. It has a cast full of marvelously talented people, and in our current age of climate change denial, stupidity among large sectors of the American populace in dealing with COVID-19 and anti-vaxxers, "Don't Look Up" seems like it should get some easy laughs out of its premise. But it just meanders by saying the same obvious thing over and over again without being particularly funny or insightful.