Don't Look Up for "Don't Look Up"

Hello everyone,

I'm going to write a quick post about a movie I hated.  Let's talk about "Don't Look Up" (2021).

I'm admittedly a bit behind the buzz about this movie, which was released and much-discussed in December 2021.  But that's by design: I was acquainted with the general premise and flinched at the global context of its release, as it seemed very much too soon (i.e., solidly mid-pandemic / early-omicron surge) to be anything other than triggeringly misery-inducing.  

Now that I have watched it, I can morosely conclude: I was not wrong!  Even months later, it was indeed triggering and misery-inducing!

Seriously?  Fuck this movie.

Do we need it?  Does it have a constructive purpose?  Because honestly, absent affirmative answers to either of these questions, it's impossible for me to see "Don't Look Up" as anything other than a cinematized long-form rant.

A rant at who, exactly?  It's hard to imagine director Adam McKay's audience deserved this screed.  We saw "Vice" (2018).  We saw "The Big Short" (2015).  Presumably, we all more or less agree that big corporations, institutions, and our government are not to be trusted.  We understand how deeply everyday citizens are getting screwed by the grinding gears of a megalomanic executive branch and avaricious corporate overreach.  We almost surely agree, from our excruciating (and, I cannot stress this enough, ONGOING) lived experience, with the general premise that our society is so deeply divided as to be completely non-functional even in the case of a massive, imminent, and unavoidable existential threat.  

So do we need a movie that basically browbeats all of us about how screwed we are?  I'm ever so slightly unconvinced we do!

What exactly is McKay's proposed solution?  That we don't laugh at memes anymore?  That we dispense with all escapism into the lives of celebrities and focus exclusively on our inevitable doom?  That we just kiss and make up with the people who lose their minds at the suggestion that they take basic and minor precautions to protect their neighbors during a pandemic or, I don't know, don't elect an openly sexist racist to the presidency?  

The truth of the matter is that he doesn't propose a solution--to the contrary, he makes us watch as our world is annihilated along with every precious living thing on it.

Sidenote: You know what got me?  The little interstitial of a hummingbird.  I don't know why it was the hummingbird--because I am just as devastated at the idea that every other precious living thing on this planet, every child, every whale, every ant, every tree, could die--but the thought of no more hummingbirds simply brought it all home and destroyed me.  And seriously, what does it accomplish to put that thought in my brain?  Let alone the bleak calculus of what I would do with my time if I knew I only had 6 months and 14 days left?  Why am I thinking about this on a Monday night, Adam McKay?

I understand being mad.  Trust me, I am very mad about the state of our society and how woefully manipulated we've all been into not only hating each other, but more importantly actively working against our common interest, so we don't turn our ire against the ~0.2% of people who benefit from our distraction.  But I am also very mad at this movie for wrapping its knuckles on the foreheads of its audience--for terrorizing us with a horrific "disaster comedy" about the end of everything--without any recourse.  Ultimately, McKay's 2.5 hour-long tantrum of a film isn't accomplishing anything other than cruelty.

So yeah.  Count me as solidly not a fan of this movie.  I gave it a 1.

{Heart}

PS: If you're also apparently really invested in the existence of hummingbirds, here's a charity that feels the same way.