Film review: Don’t Look Up

Christmas is over, and in the anticipation of life returning to normality, (or as normal as it can get at the moment), there’s nothing better to do than to watch a film, and Netflix has delivered their best yet.

Don’t Look Up is their answer to these boring winter nights, and follows the story of two low-level astronomers, Dr Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), who must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.

They must fight with the public, the government, tech conglomerates, and even the President herself, played magnificently by Meryl Streep.

The story seems a bit out there, I know, but upon watching, it becomes a lot more believable, both due to how it is handled, in terms of writing, acting, and direction, as well as the deeper message that it represents – the concerning state of misinformation and hypocrisies of the current age that we live in.

It’s full of unpleasant characters and even more unpleasant situations. The film is a brilliant satire which both critiques and pokes fun at the absurd theorists and deniers of the current situation of worldly affairs.

It can be difficult to handle this sort of thing maturely enough as to not offend the masses, but still allowing the film to be an escape from reality – something which all films should strive to be.

The mastermind behind the work of art that is the script is Adam McKay, the man who wrote and directed Anchorman and The Big Short. The writing in this film is nothing sort of superb, and deserves to be studied in schools across the world. He keeps the dialogue smart and snappy, while being able to appeal to fans of action, drama, science fiction and comedy.

Leading the ensemble cast Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, who are both absolutely phenomenal in their roles, with Lawrence, in particular, being especially terrific in this hilarious role.

Backing up the pair are Meryl Streep as the President, Jonah Hill as her son, Rob Morgan as Dr Teddy Oglethorpe, Cate Blanchette as a daytime talk-show host, Mark Rylance as a billionaire Silicon Valley CEO, and Ariana Grande as a popstar who is not unlike a satirical version of herself.

The acting is honestly amazing across the board, with every actor perfectly blending humour and drama, keeping their respective characters completely and utterly outlandish, while still (somehow) staying grounded in reality, and most can even be metaphorical for real-world people, although I’m not going to say exactly who.

Overall, Don’t Look Up is a hilarious film to watch in dreary January, allowing us to laugh off the hideous state of the world at the moment.

• Don’t Look Up is streaming now on Netflix

By Jack Baxter