Movie Review: Don't Look Up - Directed by Adam McKay

Everyday it gets a little closer but no one listened to its reality.  A global catastrophic event on the horizon. From a science lab at Michigan State, a doctoral student, Kate Dibialsky played by Jennifer Lawrence, discovered a gigantic comet on a trajectory towards Earth. She called her professor, Dr Randall Mindy who gathered his students together to go over the data. The data was frightening and correct. The U.S. President Orlean, played by Meryl Streep, is a caricature of any leader of the free world who understands more about polling numbers than the data of scientists. Her rebuff of the scientific data is not just frustrating but to Kate Dibialsky, infuriating. Enter Peter Isherwell, played by Mark Rylance, who has the money, power and vision to mine the comet for its riches rather than protect Earth.

I read several reviews and this movie was not a favourite of many. I disagreed and found its message quite powerful. The camera pans through our world of abundance and nonchalance, politics and greed, underscoring our maladjusted priorities. The security of family and honest relationships are buried in bling, glitz and even graffiti; television programming, money and technology. How there really are distant and unknowable threats to our existence. We are, in short, an arrogant and selfish species, yet we still have the potential to readjust our priorities. All the things we have are not bad in and of themselves, it is only in how we use them. 

This movie isn’t all doom and gloom. It is classified as comedic and is very satiric. This was an area that I found troubling as I don’t always catch satire. The only part I laughed out loud about was the very end. Sorry, no spoiler alert.

“We really did have everything, didn’t we?”

~ Dr. Randall Mindy, Don’t Look Up

Directed by: Adam McKay

Writing Credits:

Adam McKay (screenplay by)

Adam McKay (story by) &

David Sirota (story by)

Partial Cast: 

Leonardo DiCaprio - Dr. Randall Mindy

Jennifer Lawrence - Kate Dibiasky

Meryl Streep - President Orlean

Cate Blanchett - Brie Evantee

Rob Morgan - Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe

Jonah Hill - Jason Orlean

Mark Rylance - Peter Isherwell

Timothée Chalamet - Yule