Adam McKay’s ‘Don’t Look Up’ – the widely circulated satire of our refusal to confront the growing climate crisis – features an all-star cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Tyler Perry, Timothee Chalamet, and many more. In the film, DiCaprio and Lawrence play two astronomers who discover that a world-ending meteor is heading straight for Earth. But the couple’s warnings go unheeded by the public and the powers that be, most of whom are clueless, selfish or a combination of the two.
Upon its release, the film was met with mixed reviews. Some critics loved the film, with Forbes proclaiming he hit the target satirical. On the other hand, rolling stone posted a review titled “‘Don’t Look Up’…or you might see a bombshell from a movie rushing straight at you.” On rotten tomatoesthe film maintains a critics score of 56% and an audience score of 78%, respectively.
Given the uneven reception, why did the Motion Picture Academy decide to nominate the film for the Oscar for best film in 2021? Although Oscar voters won’t go public with the reasoning behind their specific choices, it’s no secret that “Don’t Look Up” isn’t exactly a great movie. Its performances are loud, its direction haphazard, and its script feels like a desperate one-note joke at times. As a review on RogerEbert.com he says, the film “continually has you scratching the walls with its hollow comedic sequences for a laugh”.
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