Don't Look Up -- The Wrong Guy for the Job

Don’t Look Up

Two stars

Director: Adam McKay

Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Rob Morgan, Mark Rylance, Timothée Chalamet, Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett, Ariana Grande.

I can’t say that I’ve been a big fan of Adam McKay. He’s made his career as a comedy writer/director/producer and worked on Saturday Night Live before making the switch to feature films. Some of his comedies are pretty good, such as “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “The Other Guys,” “Step Brothers,” and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” He seemed to carve out a nice niche for himself.

But in 2015 his career took a turn and his films moved into the political sphere. First, he adapted the Michael Lewis book, “The Big Short” into a feature film. The film chronicled the events that led to the housing market crash in 2008. Then in 2018, he directed the Dich Cheney biopic “Vice,” which netted him a fair amount of critical acclaim. And now with “Don’t Look Up,” he reverts back to a similar form to “The Big Short” and illustrates his style and tone are ill-fitted for the topic he tackles.

The film starts with a discovery from Michigan State University astronomers Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio). The two have tracked a comet nine kilometers big on a trajectory with Earth that would cause the extinction of all living beings on Earth. And of course, they come to the sensible conclusion that this needs to go right to the President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and warn her. They enlist the help of their contact at NASA, Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) and he stands fully behind them.

But the President and her bootlicking chief-of-staff son, Jason (Jonah Hill) would rather cling to the infinitesimal chance that such an event won’t happen. They want to “sit back and assess.”

McKay is nothing if not obvious. He doesn’t seem to know what subtlety is and that was on full display in his previous two political films. And in some cases, subtlety isn’t just wanted, it’s needed. You could say in this instance, he and writer David Sirota (a former campaign manager for Bernie Sanders) are tone deaf here. When taking on such an existential subject, it’s jarring to be bombarded by elements that are either plainly inconsequential, or those that are nihilistically satirical (and just not very funny).

When they are blown off by the President, Dibiasky and Mindy decide to take the matter to the media. But instead of going to a credible journalistic outlet, they decide to tell their story on a “Good Morning America”-type of show called “The Daily Rip.” And you can predict the outcome. They aren’t taken seriously. Mindy is more subdued but Dibiasky is far more direct about the dire consequences. She is immediately dismissed by hosts Jack Bremmer (Tyler Perry) and Brie Evantee (Cate Blanchett) as the stereotypical “hysterical woman.”

There are two ways to interpret this film. It is either specifically a metaphor for the indifference toward climate change by so many. Or, there is a more broad interpretation – that being what we see today with so many people being openly hostile toward science in light of Covid.

It’s also a half-assed indictment of news media. Yes, Mindy and Dibiasky go to the “media” with their concerns, but it isn’t a legit media outlet. The talk show only has a larger reach. But McKay’s intent is obvious. The culture here in the US, the one that allowed the Kardashians to have an utterly vapid show for years, isn’t really concerned with information. They want entertainment, and many media outlets are willing to oblige.

After all this is established, the film then goes off on a tangent. Mindy’s message to audiences on “The Daily Rip” is more palatable and digestible. As audiences warm up to him more with each appearance, he starts to believe his own new-found celebrity and it leads him to have an affair with Blanchett’s character. Dibiaski becomes a memed celebrity after her clickbait journalist boyfriend publishes a story about dating a crazy woman. Despite that temporary loss of focus for a meandering and unnecessary 30 minutes, the main characters find themselves in each other’s company for the ending.

There are just so many questions here that McKay refuses to address. For some reason the US is left to tackle this issue alone despite it being a potentially catastrophic event for the entire planet. There are plenty of terrific astronomers throughout the globe. Why wasn’t this tackled by the entire world? Are we supposed to believe that no other astronomer in a different country would have noticed this? Would no other media outlet outside the US have latched onto The Daily Rip’s broadcast and covered the story? In those respects, this is a tremendously short-sighted film.

McKay just isn’t the writer/director I wanted to take on this type of story. Perhaps there is satire or humor to be found in a situation like this film presents. But it would have to be helmed by someone else with a more deft touch. I could not help but think of Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival,” a film about making first contact with alien life forms. In the hands of, say, Michael Bay, that likely would have devolved into a typical action film with the central focus being on combat scenes. Villeneuve treated the film cerebrally and existentially. It was intelligent, thought provoking and shaped with the hands of an artisan

That is the kind of approach I wanted here and just didn’t get it.