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Editor suggests viewers don’t look up this movie
SAT. | 02-12-22 | ENTERTAINMENT
A life threatening comet, a careless president, popstar drama and insulting memes. A movie that shows the reactions of an oblivious world to a serious event. Political satire that perfectly portrays our own world…but a little too perfectly. That movie: Don’t Look Up.
With a cast of well-renowned actors, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep, this two-hour-and-18-minute-long film both impressed and disappointed me in many aspects.
For starters, the acting was applaudable and amazing. The cast list gave me high expectations. The casting director picked the best people for each role. Popstar Ariana Grande was the best choice for character Riley Bina — Bina seems like she was meant to make fun of celebrities like Grande which makes it humorous that she accepted the role.
Another example of good casting is Streep playing United States President Jane Orlean. I really like it when actors are able to make you feel a certain way about their character. The first moment that had me was when she said she’d lie to people and say the comet would have a 70% chance of destroying Earth instead of 99%. Watching Orlean made me almost dislike Streep because the acting was just too good.
There was also one scene that involved DiCaprio that I would say was one of his best. Earlier in the movie, we see his character, Dr. Randall Mindy, and his student, Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence), on a talk show, where Dibiasky has a breakdown over their discovery of the comet which creates some foreshadowing. Later, Mindy does the same thing on the same show as a reaction to how serious the comet has become, and in my opinion, this was a very powerful scene.
Now, the acting may have been a pro, but overall, this film
Photo courtesy of imdb.com
wasn’t my favorite piece of work. I feel like it would have been better if it was released later. It was just too obvious what it was making fun of. In fact, there were many props and scenes that were geared towards what is going on today.
It’s obvious the idea of a comet coming down and destroying Earth is making fun of the handling of the pandemic, with some media calling it a conspiracy and not real. There was even a point where characters could look up and see it in the sky, which led to the president running a campaign on the slogan, “don’t look up,” which supporters would wear on red hats. (hint hint)
I feel like most political satire should be up to interpretation and shouldn’t be obvious as to what it’s hinting towards. This film just didn’t do that and felt way too close to home. One thing I will give this film is that it was given a proper ending.
Most “end of the world” films that I’ve seen usually end on a cliffhanger and don’t tell if the main characters die or live. Don’t Look Up ended in a way that I personally wouldn’t have ended it, but at least you know what happened.
Out of five, I’d give this film a three. There were aspects of it that were very impressive, but most of the time, I was sitting there waiting for it to end. I feel like the film went on for two hours too long, but I can see others watching this and being enticed. This wasn’t for me, but I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in political satire.
