Don’t Look Up Movie Review

DON’T LOOK UP

Movie Review

By Zoé Fraussen

Having people know that I am interested in space has led to some interesting consequences that I did not expect. I get flooded with the same message and article links every time a space story is in the news, I’m banned from talking about Black Holes at parties, I get asked about conspiracy theories a lot but mainly, I get a heap of people telling me to watch and wanting my opinion on any movie that has to do with space.

When the messages about Don’t Look Up started inundating my phone I was sceptical. End of the world movies, especially ones with asteroids, rarely get any science right and I was worried this would be more of the same. But I am capable of turning my pedantic science brain off and enjoying media, so I gave it a try. And yeah, it’s a good film.

Don’t Look Up is a satirical black comedy movie about a “planet killer” asteroid and the difficulties scientists have in making the general public (and politicians) care. Initially, it was just meant to be an analogy for climate change, but a strange new thing called Covid came along and what do you know, it also seemed to fit. So, as a film about the disasters our planet is facing and the inability of people to listen to scientists, I think Don’t Look Up hit the nail on the head.

The movie has had some contentious reviews, people found it too real to life and found the satire didn’t land. Some found that the star-studded cast was misused, a cast including Leonardo DiCaprio as the astronomy professor who lets fame go to his head, Jennifer Lawrence as a PhD candidate turned meme, Meryl Streep as the President of the United States with a very familiar attitude and her son played by Jonah Hill.

However, I found the film presented some pretty good science, got me invested in the characters, and made me laugh, all signs of a good movie in my book. I particularly love the musical cameo by Ariana Grande and would have made her song my new ringtone if my phone hadn’t been on silent since 1981.

If you are the type of person who can laugh about our planet’s misfortunes and not just get frustrated by people not listening to science, then I say this film is for you. The science behind the movie only had me tutting a few times before I was silenced by my watching partners and for a film primarily based on astronomy, that’s pretty rare.

Director:

Adam McKay

Cast:

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Scott Mescudi, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep

Available On:

On Netflix now