Don't Look Up movie review: A well-made satire

3.5/5

There is a planet-killer asteroid heading towards earth and people on Earth have to act now to ensure their survival. That is the premise of the new Leonardo Di Caprio-starrer ‘Don’t Look Up’. It’s a satire floating in the realms of science-fiction disaster movies with a celestial object, a metaphor for climate change.

If you are someone who views the glass as half empty, as this writer tends to do, then you will relate heavily with the movie. The world leaders see the impending doom as a political goldmine. For businessmen it’s a regular goldmine while for the media it’s less important than a celebrity scandal. Social media is more interested in judging the scientists’ appearance and behaviour. People, leaning into the deep seated mistrust in America, are just simply divided on the topic. Everyone’s myopia leaves them unable to see the larger existential crisis.

Writer-director Adam McKay delivers a scathing, if over the top, indictment of the society through the absurd premise of the movie. DiCaprio delivers a typically solid performance as the anxiety-ridden good looking scientist, who briefly falls into the glamour and glitz celebrity culture before rediscovering his morality. Jennifer Lawrence, who discovers the planet-killer and works along with DiCaprio, steals the show with her sharp one-liners, a deadpan delivery and obsession over an incident which forms a running joke throughout the film.

Meryl Streep embodies the Trumpian aesthetics, Jonah Hill and Cate Blanchett are cleverly cast and Timothee Chalamet is randomly there as well. Ariana Grande steals the scenes she is in and her song is quite funny.

A lot of the jokes and situations, exaggerated as they may be, do land and while one can make a case for the movie being slightly longer than it needs to be, it does not distract you enough that you will reach for your phone.