Don't Look Up!

By Linda Winsh-Bolard

The most frightening aspect of Don't Look Up! is how accurately it describes the governmental handling of issues. All issues, regardless of their validity.

In the story written by David Sirota , two Michigan astronomers, Dr. Mindy and Kate Dibiasky ( Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence), discover that a mass traveling through space will hit, and destroy, the planet Earth, unless it is diverted.

The timeliness, diversion window included, are mathematically defined.

They set out on a journey to save the Earth.

What might have been a corny tearjerker becomes a study of power within our social structure.

Far from satirical, even though it is so perceived, that part is minutely accurate.  

President Orlean (Meryl Streep) first disregards the astronomer's warning, not because she is flippant, but because she is indeed besieged daily by tragedies , current and future disasters, warnings and predictions. The entire administration is, and they have become indifferent to it all. 

For Dr. Mindy and Kate Dibiasky this is, like the real workings of the government, new; the egos of the "public servants", the insulting barbs aimed at those outside the chosen club, the greed. Amazing and off putting. They are the newcomers, not having passed, yet, into the insulated class of the rulers. 

The administration is not stupid, president Orlean realizes the danger is real and formulates a plan to minimize it-and runs into the power of money. The consequent  manipulation of the media and population, the knowing betrayal of all, including themselves, is astonishingly well executed. The black men additions, while sarcastic, sadly remind us of black sites that were real.

Money runs the world. People with money are so insulated that nothing but profit matters to them, because they can buy themselves anything they need, even survival. And so money takes risks, risks that others will pay for. 

Sometimes it is almost painful to watch the film, because the issue of heaven like punishment for greed can be transferred to a number of real problems, as can be the cost of it all to ordinary people.

Adam McKay (The Big Short) adapted the story to screenplay, and again, he presents the issues with a satirical comedy touch. Adding the farcical aspect of humanity does not make the whole interaction any less accurate.

McKay likes working with stars, Don't Look Up!  is as star-studded a movie as they come: Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo diCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Scot Mescudi. 

There are so many, that none is the star of the story, and that is a good thing. 

Meryl Streep kept her acting skills, she is one of the most convincing actors out there, while somehow getting younger, at least in looks. Leonardo DiCaprio skipped the younging process, as did Jennifer Lawrence, whose character is the most convulsed in the film, and hardest to present as believable. She almost achieves the impossible. Cate Blanchett has a much easier job portraying the TV anchor who is devoted to her career far more than to journalism.

Behind the camera, Linus Sandgren is also an Oscar winner.

Hollywood has been aware of the sham and power of stardom for over a century. It occasionally takes a stab at it, as McKay does here, yet it succumbs to it, just like Blanchett's Brie Evantee, and excludes all others, just like Jonah Hill's Jason Orlean. 

It will be nominated for an Oscar, but will not get it. It is far too farcical and far too close to home for Hollywood to give it a shot.