movie review - Don't Look Up
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
This is irritatingly close to a good movie. They took three excellent actors and put them in roles where they could shine, had them working in conditions where they clearly enjoyed working together, and then layered the whole thing with such a self-indulgent dose of Hollywood politics that I actually felt sympathy for the appalling Trump family as a result. It's about some scientists who discover an asteroid that's on a collision course with Earth. In a thinly-veiled reference to the pandemic and also the climate crisis, we find the scientists ignored by the government, a good deal of the populace, and of course the "elites". The leading family in the government is a gender-reversed version of the aforementioned Trumps, with a Sarah-Palin-like narcissist moron in the Presidency and her immature half-wit son standing in for Trump's daughter/obsession. I found this complete unnecessary.
And by this I mean that the two leads (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) do such a good job of their part as the frustrated duo suddenly thrust into the lime-light that I wanted them to carry the rest of the story. Then Cate Blanchett's character arrives, and you really have all you need -- she could have been their life-line in getting their story told and had an arc through the story as they wend their way through the various audiences they would have had. But no, we have the repulsive characatures. Not only the mirror-image Trumps but a Bezos/Musk amalgam that I felt was at least more timeless and anonymous.
Not recommended.