Don’t Look Up: A Constellation of Stars at the Presser, and the Elephant in the Zoom
By Liam Lacey
Rating: C-
The Netflix virtual press conference on December 6 for Adam McKay’s apocalyptic comedy, Don’t Look Up, was something akin to an astronomical event.
That is to say, 375 journalists from outside the U.S. Zoomed in on a rare constellation of major movie stars, proving the massive gravitation force of the streaming service Netflix.
The movie opens this weekend in limited theatrical release before its debut on the streaming service as an early Christmas present on December 24.
In the film, Leonardo DiCaprio, sporting a goatish beard and big glasses, plays a panic-attack prone University of Michigan astronomer named Randall Mindy, alongside Jennifer Lawrence as Kate Dibiasky, a nose-ringed, truth-telling grad student who discovers a comet heading toward Earth. The two are whisked to Washington in a military transport plane to report on their discovery, where they find they are told the message can wait.
Scientists Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio and surfer buddy Timothée Chalamet
In reaction, they embark on a media tour, where Randall becomes a Dr. Fauci-style sex symbol and the angry, Greta Thunberg-like Kate an object of scorn after ruining the vibe on breakfast television by screaming that “we’re all 100% for sure gonna fucking die!”
The combination of oily TV journalists (Tyler Perry and Cate Blanchett) and a narcissistic president, (Meryl Streep’s Janie Orlean), can’t or won’t believe the sky is falling.
Jonah Hill plays the president’s self-important son and Chief-of-Staff, Timothée Chalamet pops up as a religious skate-boarder, Ariana Grande as a pop star, Mark Rylance as a billionaire inventor with Elizabeth Holmes weird affect, with Ron Perlman as a meathead gung-ho general.
Along with being responsible for many billions at the box office, the cast has collectively earned more than 40 Academy Award nominations (though, to be fair, half of those were for Streep). A few journos have already shown symptoms of a variant of Oscar fever: Tweeted one Variety writer: “Noms could actually break into the double digits.”
Or, perhaps, the Earth could get hit by a meteor before then. The moderator for the event was astronomer Dr. Amy Mainzer, a science advisor on the film, who introduced the line-up of talent sitting in charcoal-covered high-backed chairs. They included musician Scott (Kid Cudi) Mescudi, co-writer and performer of the film’s titular theme song, actors Tyler Perry, Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep, Leonard DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and writer-director Adam McKay.
PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN
The astronomer awarded herself the first leading question:
“How do you hope that this movie changes the public’s perception of science and the people who practice science?”
DiCaprio said some general things about appreciating truth-tellers and Jennifer Lawrence agreed that “It’s just so sad and frustrating to watch people who have dedicated their lives to learning the truth be turned away because people don’t like what the truth has to say.”
And Dr. Mainzer said she really appreciated that: “I think that really resonated with me and with a lot of my colleagues in the science community.”
Then Dr. Mainzer read out about about a dozen selected questions from the press, from India, Poland, Mexico, Brazil, Canada and other non-USA countries.
McKay, a Saturday Night Live writing alumnus whose resume includes broad popular comedies (Anchorman) to more serious political and social satire (The Big Short, Vice), explained his idea of meshing comedy and a serious message.
“That was really the intention with this movie, after the crazy last five, ten years, we've all had across the planet. It was that, ‘God,wouldn't it be nice to laugh at some of this and feel the other feelings?’
“So that was kind of the approach, because I think we get hit with sort of thumping doomsday talk quite a bit. Which, by the way, is totally legit when it comes to climate change. But, I did think it was important that people be allowed to laugh and have some distance.”
DiCaprio said he had been looking for a movie to address climate change in an accessible manner for decades and McKay, “really cracked the code with this narrative.”
But most of the questions were trivial, including how Jennifer Lawrence learned a Wu Tang Clan’s Ain’t Nuthing ta Fuck Wit, how she geeked out meeting pop star Ariana Grande, and how her character felt about having a comet named after her. (“I didn’t think about it.”).
Much of the time was spent with cast members complimenting each other’s brilliance, to the point where they began kibitzing about how much it was happening.
“I admired your incompetence as a president,” Jennifer Lawrence told Meryl Streep.
“And the shoes?” responded Streep.
“Idol” banter aside, the cast’s commitment to getting behind a good movie cause was undoubtedly sincere and no doubt it was challenging for the cast and crew to shoot the film back last November, under pre-vaccine COVID conditions. (Streep, after all is a grandmother). You could also appreciate their pleasure at seeing one another again and returning to the semi-normal rituals of publicity and movie premieres.
At the end, the astronomer/moderator Dr. Mainzner wrapped things up by handing everyone a sticker representing NASA’s Planetary Defense Co-ordination Office for their part in helping save the world.
Although I can’t pretend to have gauged the reaction from the other 374 journalists around the globe on the call, I felt as though there was something large and looming that was not being acknowledged here - an elephant in the Zoom if you will - which is that Don’t Look Up isn’t good.
Running a long 145 minutes, it’s bleakly cartoonish polemic with few laughs or dramatic peaks, despite a climactic mad-as-hell speech from DiCaprio, some ineffectual pantomiming from Streep, and some third-act forced solemnity.
None of the satiric targets of the script by McKay and co-writer David Sirota (a journalist and former Bernie Sanders speech writer), seem like satire at all, but a diluted version of a more toxic reality.
Compulsively cruel social media, a venal science-denying President, conscienceless tech billionaires, cheerfully stupid morning shows — where’s the invention?
While the obvious ambition was to create a black comedy along the lines of Dr. Strangelove or Network, with touches of Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the distance between the models and the copy are disheartening.
In practice, Don’t Look Up plays like a series of lesser Saturday Night Live sketches, with major actors pantomiming news events without adding insight. The depressing effect is to make catastrophe seem banal. As T.S. Eliot put it, “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.”
Don’t Look Up. Directed by Adam McKay. Written by Adam McKay and David Sirota. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Rob Morgan Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchette, Tyler Perry, Mark Rylance, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Melanie Lynskey, Michael Chiklis. Opens in selected theatres December 10 and on Netflix December 24.