I had no clue the embargo for “Don’t Look Up” had lifted and that reviews were allowed to be published. If I knew that then I would have written something on Monday, which is when I saw Adam McKay’s goofy political satire.
First things first, check out the reviews, yikes! A 53 on Metacritic and a 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. Know what? It can still get a Best Picture nomination. The industry power of McKay and that cast are very hard to ignore.
As for my thoughts on the film, it’s the absolute perfect product for Netflix to premiere during the holidays. The film is a mix of dumb comedy and social-conscious drama. Does it work? Not all the time, in fact I was rather annoyed by quite a few of the characters in the film, not to mention McKay’s snarky writing. However, the cast alone will make this a very popular movie on Netflix.
I actually liked “Vice”, but this isn’t even half as interesting as that film, maybe because it lacks Dick Cheney? DiCaprio is the best in show, at least until his performance whimpers out at the end with a saccharine-inducing family scene. Jonah Hill was flat-out annoying. Meryl Streep was fine as the President. Jennifer Lawrence is basically stone-faced the entire way through.
At 145 minutes, “Don’t Look Up” felt like a little too much of everything. It’s a wackadoodle statement on an important subject matter, but instead ends up feeling like a self-important statement. I’ll have more thoughts soon …