Don't Look Up Review

Don’t Look Up Review

Don’t Look Up is one of the 10 movies nominated for best picture at the Oscars. I watched it for the first time earlier this week and wanted to share my thoughts on the movie!

NOTE: This movie is about astronomers trying to stop an asteroid from hitting the Earth and killing everybody on it. And so this movie might hit a bit too close to home for some people. I don’t say this as a good or a bad thing but something to be aware of going in. This movie will be too realistic for some people. 

RATING: R (Nudity and Language)

WHERE TO WATCH: Netflix

The Good:

As this is a comedy the most important thing this movie is supposed to do is make you laugh. And this movie absolutely did that, I had laughed out loud a number of times in this movie. This movie was written and directed by Adam McKay who has both written and directed a number of well received comedies over the years. And he brought all of his skills to this movie. It's one of the 2021 movies that I laughed at the most. And everybody in this movie gets a line that made me chuckle. 

Also this is a political based movie but in my mind, it never got preachy. It had a message it was trying to communicate to the audience but it never had characters lecturing to other characters about it. Because so many movies and tv shows are preaching to the audience. Like for example, the final season of Supergirl got very very preachy with episodes 8-15 had a different message it was trying to communicate and it felt preachy. And I don’t want a superhero show to be preachy and it shouldn’t be political. This is a movie about the politics of the government and it’s not preachy. 

Another positive for this movie is that it’s a very well balanced set of characters. Some characters are in the movie for a lot of it, while others are only in it for under 10 minutes. But they all have something about them that is interesting. Something about each of them pops and stands out. The big example of this is Ron Perlman’s character who is only in like 3 scenes of the movie. But the way his character is written is so flamboyant and like something you might know in real life. 

But I think the big reason for liking these characters is because this is an all-star cast of actors. I did some research and between Leonardo DiCpario, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Timothee Chalamet, and Jonah Hill they have a combined 41 Oscar nominations (granted Streep has 20 nominations). But everybody in this movie gives a great performance. Leonardo DiCpario plays this very different character than what he’s used to playing and he’s great at it. Meryl Streep plays the president and very much feels like this Trump type president. You even have Timothee Chalamet playing this hipster skateboarder that is also religious and it’s a very different performance then what I thought he was going to be in this movie. 

Finally, the movie does have plenty of dramatic and heartfelt moments. And since this movie is a comedy the drama never feels undermined by all of the comedy. The comedy does break the tension at just the right points in time. But the stuff with Leo and his family in this movie is probably the aspect that had the most emotions for me. 

The Bad: 

And the big thing here is that the final scene of the movie is very weird. I don’t want to say what it is because that would be spoilers. But if you’ve seen the movie I think you can see why I would have that issue. It feels lonely out of place with the rest of the movie and I don’t think it worked all that well. 

Finally, Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi’s characters in the movie feel out of place with the rest of the cast and characters. Obviously, both of them are successful singers and not actors. But the way they are used in this movie feels out of place with the characterizations of the others in the movie. 

Final Thoughts: Don’t Look Up is a really good and really funny movie that some people are really going to enjoy while others are not going to enjoy it. But I will say I think this is a movie worth checking out that you could get entertainment out of. So all in all, this is a really good and one of my favorite 2021 movies. 

The Score: 8.8/10 (B+)