Don't Look Up Review

BY FIRST LAST '2?

It’s Christmas night. The vibes are immaculate. Wrapped in blankets, you search for a movie to watch. You scroll past Elf and Home Alone, and, naturally, you select Don’t Look Up, a horrifying film about a giant comet hurtling towards the Earth. How cheerful!

I’m not a fan of disaster movies. Sad movies are great, but large-scale tragedies are often overwhelming. Admittedly, I did watch Don’t Look Up because of the online buzz and its star-studded cast (Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence, my queens!), but it exceeded my expectations and left some insightful commentary—albeit uncomfortable—on the idiocies of our society. And, to be honest, we deserve to feel uncomfortable.

Some critics claim that the movie is condescending toward the public and that it denominates them as dumb “sheeple” in an SNL-type corny skit. I think these viewers are missing the point. Although some jokes land flat and its narcissistic president resembles Donald Trump, the movie isn’t exactly elitist liberal propaganda. 
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In actuality, Don’t Look Up criticizes big tech companies and powerful political figures, not the citizens themselves. For the most part, Americans are eager, prepared, and nearly successful in stopping the comet. Only the rich demagogues and mercenaries mislead the people for their own selfish reasons, resulting in a scarily realistic descent into calamity. It’s the media that blocks people from learning the complete truth in order to push their own agenda. In the heartbreaking conclusion, as the main cast enjoys a final dinner while the world comes to an end, they make peace with the fact that they made their best efforts to combat this corruption.

So, despite minor issues in production quality and pacing, I thought that Don’t Look Up was an effective summation of society’s reaction to crises while still maintaining faith in humanity. It might not have been the most cheerful Christmas watch, but it sends a poignant message to the human race as a whole, especially in the face of climate change. The realities displayed in the movie are utterly relevant; global leaders continually fail to listen to scientific evidence and maximize profit at the expense of safety. Oh, I’m sorry, this is getting a bit dark isn’t it?

In other news, Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson were just spotted boarding a private jet to the Bahamas! I really wonder where this relationship is going, don’t you?