 Usually when a new movie comes out starring Leonardo DiCaprio, you hear about it ahead of time. When a new movie coming out stars Meryl Streep, you absolutely hear about it ahead of time. But because we're still in 2021, as of this recording and nothing makes any sense, I had no idea Don't Look Up was even coming out, let alone that it had these two big A-listers, Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Tyler Perry, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Hell, even a little Timothy Chalamet was sprinkled in for good measure. So I hadn't heard about this, going in. Didn't see a trailer, didn't see a poster or still image of the film, and it's Netflix exclusive, so there's a lot of red flags. Fortunately, I like this quite a bit. Let's talk. Don't Look Up is not gonna be for everyone, especially if you're sick of those damn liberals and their messaging. That's right, this is another cynical look at politics and social media. If you're sick of it, I would absolutely steer clear of this, especially if you're rocking a red MAGA hat. This one's not very kind. This is not a political channel in the slightest, but this movie is full of politics, so I can't just avoid talking about it, but I'm not gonna go into detail about what I think is right and wrong. You don't care. Most of you don't care. We're here to talk movies, so let's talk movies. Don't Look Up reminded me of a couple things I enjoy a lot, curb your enthusiasm and Starship Troopers. Kind of random, unsimilar things to bring up, right? Well, I think there's similarities in both. The movie's not afraid to make fun of everyone, but it definitely goes a lot harder on one specific group of people. It has that more free-flowing, organic camera style to it, a little bit of shake there, not anything to annoy you, but enough to let you know. Oh, we're trying to make this a more in-your-face commentary on everything going on right now. I brought up Starship Troopers because this also does the whole propaganda thing, where it's definitely poking fun at the media, how they spin stories, how they come out with ads that are just completely over the top, and how they use people in the scientific community as puppets to spread whatever brand of message they want to do that week. The plot is very simple and straightforward. Two low-level astronomers, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, discover there's a comet hurtling towards Earth. I'd have to watch it again, but I'm pretty sure the movie starts on a pretty serious somber note. The first 15 minutes or so play it pretty straight. I thought I was watching a very serious gripping movie until they get to the White House, and then the jokes start to play out. You see how crazy everyone is working there, and then things start to really reveal themselves. I think this was all done by design. It was very cleverly handled. People are at their core pretty rational individuals that make decisions they think will benefit themselves and possibly everyone around them. It's when you get into a different environment where people aren't on the up and up, where there's profits to be made, deals to be dealt, and noise gets pumped into your head at all angles. You start to fall apart. You shut down. You fold. And that's exactly what happens in this film. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dr. Randall Mindy. The guy is so good in everything he does. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the few actors who, when I watch his performance, I instantly forget it's Leonardo, and I do see him as the character he's portraying. Jennifer Lawrence, on the other hand, can go back and forth for me. Sometimes it's very apparent when she's not interested in the role she's doing. X-Men comes to mind. Here, though, she is fantastic. When the material serves her, she can serve the material right back. Queen of Cinema, Meryl Streep plays the president, a not-so-subtle jab at Donald Trump. She even has a son who works in the White House. She's terrific, as always, although I think she could have hammed it up even more. Then there's Tyler Perry and Kate Blanchett who play actors on a show. I don't remember the name of it. It's basically like an extra or an E or a Hollywood. I don't actually know if these shows exist anymore. I haven't had cable in like a decade. Do they still do the talk shows where they talk about the celebrity gossip and all that? It's news to me if they do, but this is what they're doing here and they're doing a hell of a job. Had this film come out even five years ago, I would have thought it was a little too silly, a little too off the wall. But because of the landscape we're in today in America, it fits right at home. And it's honestly a very dark, grim prospect of what could possibly happen. And I sadly believe how the events play out in this movie is how they would unfold in the real world. Even though writer and director Adam McKay stuck the landing more times than he didn't in terms of the comedy and the approach, there are some pretty sad moments in the movie. Not like tear-jerking moments, but just like existential crisis moments. Where the movie suffers is the runtime. This thing is I believe over two hours. I would have, I would have trimmed off like 20 to 30 minutes of it. I was starting to check out towards the end and when I paused thinking there was only a few minutes left, it turned out there was 30 full minutes left. Thankfully in the last 30 minutes, stuff really does ratchet up and I found myself very entertained. But there definitely is a lull right before that point where I just thought, okay, we could stop this now. The movie pokes fun at celeb culture and how we're infatuated with what's going on in the lives of these super mega stars. Ariana Grande is playing a character of herself. It's very easy to project real world affairs with what's going on in the movie. I think it's pretty much on the nose. The comet is supposed to be the virus we're dealing with. The title of the movie Don't Look Up is a reference to the Don't Believe Your Eyes and Ears comment from a couple years ago. Dr. Randall Mindy is clearly a Dr. Fauci figure of sorts. And like I said, if you're really into politics or for some reason need to pick a side or a team, this movie's probably gonna upset you. You're gonna just call it woke or leftist or whatever. I don't know. I don't know what people think anymore. It's just sad. I just watched the movie for the entertainment value and I can laugh at both sides. I can laugh at anything. As long as it's done well, as long as it makes sense and this movie is done well, I think it makes a lot of sense. I think the commentary is spot on. The only other gripe I have with it are some of the jarring edits in the movie, names coming up, quick cuts to black. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It reminded me of the director's last movie, Vice, where it had a few of those editing techniques I just wasn't a big fan of. All in all though, this was a pleasant surprise, especially at the end of the year, in a year where I thought movies were pretty piss poor. One of the worst in a while, at least it was a very polarizing. We had some really good highs and some really low lows. If you do find yourself watching and enjoying the movie, make sure to stick around. There's two end credit scenes and they're pretty damn funny. All right, now it's your turn. Let me know in the comments what you thought about this film. If you watched it, if you just refused to because, you know, make America great or whatever. Like the video if you had a good time. Subscribe if you haven't and hopefully I'll see you around. I still can't get over how I didn't even know this movie existed until like a week ago. We live in weird times right now. This would have been a film that I would have been hearing about at Nazium for like two years. I mean, I don't know if it's bad even that they just come out now. I don't know, but it's definitely different. I'm from a different time, I guess, where there was a little bit more pageantry involved. There's other videos you can click on if you want and you can become a patron as well. There's options. There's things showing up around here somewhere. I'm just buying time.