Don't Look Up: Don't Look at all

I have just got back from a lovely holiday last week, I had a wonderful time in the sun, seeing the sights, a much-needed break. I had a fantastic time; almost too good some may say. So, to bring me back to reality, today I will be talking about Don’t Look Up, a film that single-handedly nearly ruined Christmas for me.

Adam McKay, where to start with him. A director that was first famous for silly Will Ferrell comedies that has now rebranded himself as a serious film maker that sees fit to make every film the Big Short v2. I was not the biggest fan of the Big Short, I felt it was a good story, but was told in such a self-congratulatory way that made it seem Adam McKay was reaching through the screen, grabbing me by the shirt and screaming “Look how smart I am, why are you so stupid, be more like me!” It has not helped that this direction tone has been ramped up to 1000 with Don’t Look Up.

I think the main issue with this film is that is painfully unfunny. Take away the message of this film, it is supposed to be a comedy. If you are going to make a comedy film, please make it funny. This is coming from a director that has made comedy films that I have enjoyed before: Talladega Nights and Anchorman are both enjoyable films. Granted they are far from my favourite comedies, but I can put them on and have fun. The thing is the comedy in those films are absurdist and ridiculous and that’s where the humour comes from. It is that style of comedy that is tried in this film but just feels so out of place. Like the weird dinosaur eating the people that escaped and are all naked, coming after the very sombre scene of the main characters being eviscerated is so tonally out of place and, not very funny. Is the joke that they are naked? It is so bizarre. Then there’s that horrendous ‘meme’ section where all the ‘memes’ are incredibly dated and unfunny; it comes across incredibly out of touch. Do not get me started on that horrible joke song sketch that came off like a James Corden skit. Any joke that makes me think of James Corden is automatically going to make me mad. Another joke seems to be that Leonardo DiCaprio is good looking? That seems to be it, people fancy DiCaprio. I am not sure what the punch line is. The film then decides to waste its funniest component by giving Jonah Hill nothing to do. He is head and shoulders above anyone else in this movie and it pains me that this is the film that brought him back to comedy.

The social commentary in this movie is painfully on the nose. It comes across as Trump bad, big business bad, McKay good. This is the most basic form of commentary that can be taken. Everyone knows that Trump was a horrible person and a terrible president, we all know that the environmental crisis needs addressing. These are the basic takes I could have told you, where is my multi-million-dollar film deal? Every moment involving the President feels like a massive wink to the camera saying, “ha-ha Trump right”. The problem is when you have a president as deplorable as Trump, any form of satire is immediately invalidated because the reality is far more ridiculous than the joke. That is the problem, McKay’s satire does not go far enough and so loses all impact. McKay points out all these societal issues but has no commentary. It is so on the nose, no metaphor, no wider message, it ends u being very bland and boring. Quite frankly 2012 does a better job of conveying the message of this film.

Finally, I cannot talk about this film without mentioning the editing in this film. It is SO BAD. This film is borderline unwatchable at times, absolutely no natural flow, completely chopped up. It is like the week before it was due to come out and Adam McKay took it on himself to edit it. Somehow this being nominated for 4 Oscars not being the most ridiculous thing to occur at this year’s ceremony only speaks volume of the shambles the Academy is.