“Don’t Look Up” directed by Adam McKay, 2021
This obvious political satire and allegory is about climate change and how it is being handled presently in America’s shallow, social-media packed lives. Instead of global warming the world is facing an impending collision with a very large comet, which will destroy almost everything on earth. The film is loaded with current and past references and jokes, which is why many on Facebook are hailing the dark hoot. We have touches of the desperately angry anchor of Network and the right-wing Southern bomber pilot in Dr. Strangelove, who is also a replacement for the elder gang in Space Cowboys or the blue-collars in Armageddon. The young and nerdy astronomers appear to warn the public on a TV show like The Morning Show, full of light-weight chatter and obliviousness. There is even a slobbish presidential aide straight out of Veep.
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| Doomsday Infotainment |
The worst character is a creepy techno-positivist hybrid between the leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult and Jeff Bezos or Steve Jobs. The president is a blend of the smug ignorance of Sarah Palin and the cold profiteering outlook of Hillary Clinton. She gets caught in a scandal sending pictures of her ‘cooze’ to some lover. We see a Texan in a big black cowboy hat being sworn into the Supreme Court. The President’s aide is a shallow hack who thinks wisecracks are the essence of politics. A general scams the civilian visitors to the White House out of a $20 bill…though usually it is billions.
The screenplay was written by David Sirota, a left-liberal who worked for Bernie Sanders. The slogan ‘Don’t Look Up” comes from the president’s Party after the scientists tell people to ‘Just Look Up’ - since the comet is now plainly visible in the sky. This is relevant because the ersatz America News wing was saying that the comet was a hoax or no big deal. The title is an obvious play on “Make America Great Again” and climate or vaccine denial.
With only six months to act, a government official at NASA with no background in astronomy rejects the scientists’ finding. A famous New York newspaper then kills the comet story, based on the official’s claim. But then all other scientists agree the comet is heading towards earth. The government finally decides to send a rocket to blow the comet out of its path due to scandal and re-election concerns. However, at the last minute the flight is diverted on the recommendation of the techno-positivist billionaire, who is also a large political donor to the president. That rocket was filled with a nuclear warhead, so I hope that landing was ‘soft.’
The billionaire has come up with a plan to ‘mine’ the comet for trillions of dollars in valuable rare minerals, useful for his cell phone company and the capitalist (and green…) economy. The plan is not peer-reviewed, just a crack-pot scheme by private enterprise. When one astronomer challenges him, he resorts to personal attacks, which seems to be the standard method of deflection. This about-face is a poke at disaster capitalism, which is orienting towards profiting from climate change. It is also a commentary on geo-engineering, vanity space flights and asteroid mining. Of course the president goes for the new plan… announcing it in a front of a battleship and fireworks, like some “Mission Accomplished” scene we know well. The plan eventually goes awry.
The Russians, Indians and Chinese attempt to launch a diversion rocket of their own, but somehow that explodes. They had been cut off, along with all other countries, from the benefits of the mining operation by the U.S. Sabotage? It is not clear from the brief bit.
In the process one of the astronomers has lost her temper on TV and she becomes a ‘meme’ for getting hysterical in public. The other is co-opted for a while, but then can’t do it anymore and blows his top too. They work on a ‘Just Look Up’ political group out of some store-front office in D.C., but their efforts are insufficient. A lame Geldorfian “Live Aid” pop concert doesn’t work either. Eventually they decide to go back home to Michigan and Illinois. One visits her parents. At the locked screen door her mother tells her that she “supports the jobs the mining operation will bring”…probably the saddest line in the whole film. The two of them have a ‘last supper’ with family and friends. Oddly, this ends with a sad ‘prayer’ mumbled by a skater punk played by the worst actor in the world, Timothee Chalamet. They all hold hands while the earth crumbles. The film ends with a riff on the Garden of Eden and cryogenic freezing.
In the last conversation at the last dinner, the astronomers said ‘We did all we could.” Well, no. There was no mass movement to stop the government plan, just chaotic rioting. You would think there would be an armed revolt, but certainly among the U.S. population or action by the EU. Everyone all over the world just watches the comet approach, passively. Which does mirror the majority of humans at this point regarding climate change, who are directly affected, feel angry or worried but are helpless given the failing approach of governments and political movements. This government won't save us, technology won't save us, the 'market' won't save us.
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| Actually, Look Around! |
A flack film reviewer at the Guardian, Charles Bramesco, trashed the film as ‘preaching to the choir.’ As if a well-reasoned or heartfelt film would convince any climate change denier! What Bramesco doesn’t want to know is that at this point it’s a war, not a debate club. And the ‘choir’ includes the overwhelming majority of the congregation. His favorite film is listed as Boogie Nights and he’s written for Forbes, so consider the source. His take is the aesthete equivalent of the slogan “Don’t Look Up.” 45% of critics on that Tomato site were thumbs down – which says more about what a crowd of useless middle-class fucks they
really are.The film is marred by too many well-known mega-Hollywood stars, which undermines its message, but that is situation normal and probably a popularity tactic – for some. I imagine the Fox News crowd doesn’t watch Netflix as they’re too busy eyeballing every sporting event they can handle. Which is why Netflix thought the movie might be profitable in the urban culture sector, driving subscriptions to the site. There is money to be made on either side of this aisle, unfortunately. The real problem is - why hide behind a comet? A satire of current climate denial by capitalist governments, businesses, politicians and media would be far more direct, sharp and funny.
I have noticed that the more culturally conservative people are, the less they watch films, just as they read less. Is it just me?
At any rate, crackling laughs, a few sharp pokes, but no solution, as its a bit too Hollywood. Changing the minds of climate deniers is not really the task – it is to build a movement that brings power to an anti-capitalist solution to the climate crisis. Laughing at government, at capitalists and at their fools is essential. Humor and tough satire are more corrosive than a well-written, peer-reviewed research paper. In this case, the ‘fuck your lying ass’ meme eats the movie… as it pulls a much bigger joke than any tiny Twitter twerk by a denier troll.
(The director McKay also did Talladega Nights, Anchorman and The Big Short, which made fun of NASCAR, local TV news anchors and Wall Street, in that order. I imagine those didn’t convince anyone either.)
P.S. - Guardian writer slams the critics who reject, basically, the existence of satire: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/01/lighten-up-satire-tall-order-life-out-crazying-even-science-fiction
Prior blog reviews on this subject, use the blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 14 year archive of reviews, using these terms: “Tropic of Chaos” (Parenti); “This Changes Everything” and “On Fire” (Klein); “A Redder Shade of Green,” “The Sixth Extinction,” “The Vanishing Face of Gaia”(Lovelock); “Blue Covenant” (Barlow); “Extreme Cities,” “We’re Doomed, Now What?” “Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers – Again,” “The Collapse of Western Civilization.”
The Cultural Marxist
December 30, 2021
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