Don't Look Up...Please!

 

Probably the most divisive movie in recent years is Adam McKay's all-star satire Don't Look Up on Netflix, purportedly the second most popular film on the service ever. While it is a call to arms regarding global warming masked as a giant comet heading toward Earth scenario, it has opinions split right down the middle, not only from professional critics but from neophytes like myself. The pushback isn't coming from the film's easy targets (Republicans, conservatives and Trumpeters) but from members the choir it's preaching to who, in the filmmaker's opinion, should thank their lucky stars they have a movie like this. Now Progressives haves a Passion of the Christ they call their very own, so stop whining about quality already.  

You see, Don't Look Now isn't very good as a movie. It's a bloated, unfunny, overlong mess. To make matters worse, it's smug, condescending and self-righteous enough to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. While not a complete disaster, saved by some performances (not you, Meryl Streep) and a smattering of almost amusing scenes, its satirical jabs are ham-handed at best, pathetic at worst and safe as all get out when it clumsily skewers everyone and anyone who doesn't agree with their message that they hammer home every minute its nearly three hour running time.

Its supporters are crying foul when it comes to the mainstream press, claiming they oppose the film in retaliation for how the media is portrayed. Where does that leave the rest of us? Is Don't Look Up deemed critic-proof because of its "noble" intentions? It's not the message, you sanctimonious clods. It's the messenger.

And many who have defended this film find it comparable to Dr. Strangelove, which is patently absurd. For one thing, Adam McKay is no at Stanley Kubrick nor is he Terry Southern. Strangelove is also an hour and 35 minutes long. Kubrick's film is also focused and using a modicum of restraint whereas McKay is Red Bulling his overbearing rants and raves in near desperation. Of course Strangelove has its over the top moments and characters, but not on a constant loop. On top of everything else, it's also extremely funny which Don't Look Up is not. An Inconvenient Truth was funnier. But again, its supporters undoubtedly chortled and guffawed throughout the whole thing, mostly in derision. Canned laughter for the next DNC convention.

It's tough to be on the same side with people like Adam McKay. By the midpoint of this slog called Don't Look Up, he made me start rooting for the comet. Maybe in some insidious, nihilist reverse psychological manner, that was his intention all along. 

If so, message delivered.