Film Review — Don’t Look Up
★★★★☆ Polemic social satire hits the spot
When a world-ending meteor is discovered, two astronomers struggle to convince their government and a distracted public to take the imminent threat seriously.
Against the backdrop of a (thankfully for now) fictional doomsday scenario, Adam McKay’s exasperation is positively palpable in a biting satire that, for some, is clearly too close for comfort.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence lead a large ensemble, a veritable who’s who of Hollywood, with performances acting as pipe bombs to unleash pent-up real-world frustrations, barely disguised by a fictional veneer.
If you, like me, are aghast at our world’s current polarisation on practically every conceivable issue, these protagonists could give you a reason to be cautiously optimistic. As hard as it might be to believe, you are not alone in your grave concern for the future of our civilisation, a revelation that turns this bleak disaster into a comforting blanket of hope.
Critics and audiences alike complained the humour was far too on the nose, an alarmingly hilarious conclusion, the irony of which wasn’t lost on me. Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill are fun as an obvious send-up of the tweet-mad head of the previous US administration, but Tyler Perry and Cate Blanchett are the pick of the supporting bunch as a pair of compromised talk show hosts.
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