All About Don't Look Up

 

Don't Look Up is a movie that's going to piss so many people off, from emotionally fragile shitlibs to ass-backwards snowflake conservatards. Right-wingers are going to hate the way it portrays them as willfully ignorant idiots who are all too willing to ignore scientific facts. Left-wingers are going to hate how it lampoons celebrity activism and the fact that the story was co-conceived by former Bernie Sanders speechwriter David Sirota. Every major group of people who are causing problems in the U.S. right now gets shit on. 

And you know what? I'm there for this.

Co-written and directed by Adam McKay, Don't Look Up imagines an end-of-the-world scenario and doesn't sugar-coat how the people that run this country would respond. Astronomy professor Randall Mindy (Leonardo Di Caprio) and grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discover a planet-killing comet headed straight for Earth and bring this to the attention of President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and the rest of her dumbass administration. Problem is, they're too concerned with the looming mid-term elections to consider the extinction of the human race a priority.

So while the government twiddles their thumbs, Randall and Kate fret about how to get the word out. The media brands Kate a psycho after she has a profane outburst on a morning talk show, while Randall is embraced by the media and soon becomes a Fauci-like figure. There's also a billionaire tech giant involved, whose influence pretty much controls what the politicians do. To quote Public Enemy, it all adds up to a fuckin' situation.

Usually, this would be where I talk about the acting, the direction, the visuals and all that shit. But what I really want to talk about is how unsettlingly accurate this film reflects what's happening in this country right now, as we speak. Sure, the civilization-ending threat might be different, an immense cosmic collision rather than, say, climate change or rampant income inequality. But the reactions from different groups of people are identical to shit I see from people online every day.

 Take what happens when the comet draws into sight. In the face of this direct threat to human existence, plenty of people get on social media, imploring their fellow citizens to accept what they can see with their own eyes. Other people deny reality and encourage people to "don't look up," as they're certain there's nothing up there to see. 

Pres. Orleans makes things so much worse, using the division between Americans to enhance her own popularity instead of doing what's right and admitting the truth. Then there's the shitty billionaire tech guy played by Mark Rylance who applies pressure to have the plan to deal with the comet altered in an effort to fatten his own wallet. 

It's pretty damn funny stuff, but it's also unsettling. Terrifying even. The film puts a fine point on the idea that the people who run this country don't give a fuck about the rest of us and that when humanity is caught between the hammer and the anvil, these sons of bitches will have no problem leaving the rest of us the perish while they leave in search of another planet they can fuck up.

The film another nail on the head when Kate tells a new group of friends that the conspiracies they hear are all bunk because. She says "They're too stupid to be evil," or something similar. That's the scariest part: the people with all the power are greedy morons and the people who might be able to come up with answers are ignored, or worse, turned into smiling jesters assisting the rich and the powerful get what they want.

It's not all doom and gloom, though. "Don't Look Up" also reminds us that in the end, what's really important in life are the connections we've formed with other people, the little everyday moments of being together and the memories that result. If a planet-killing celestial object ever does wreck the planet, those things aren't going to save us. But it's better to die with a wealth of friends and memories than to live on as a very rich but way stupider-than-you-think-you-are jackass. Because in the end, the universe tends to unfold as it should and the stupid rich people will be just as fucked as the rest of us. They're just too dumb to realize it.