November 2, 2024

DON’T LOOK UP (2021) – Star studded and relevant satire on the world we live in today

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

Don’t Look Up is classified as a comedy but don’t expert any slapstick laugh out loud kind of humour. Instead this is more a satire on the politics and human behaviour in today’s world with its laughs delivered more from its script than from its action on screen. Heading the star studded cast is Leonardo De Caprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two astronomers who discovers an approaching comet that is about to crash into earth with devastating consequences. Their attempt to break this news to the world proves to be an uphill task as they have to deal with politicians with other more impending agendas, and a disbelieving public brain washed by a media that is more interested in entertaining than informing. While all these are portrayed in a rather exaggerated form, we do recognise many of these behaviour in our society today.

We have the incompetent president of the USA (played by Meryl Streep) with undertones of the Trump era of misbehaviour, the self glorifying and self serving technical geek (played by Mark Rylance) that reminds us of Steve Jobs and bill Gates, the over idolised of pop super star (played by Ariana Grande) and the fake personalities of television hosts (played by Cate Blanchett). They were all actually quite hilariously portrayed, showing us how materialistic and conditioned the general public’s thinking has become. In a way, this film manages to illustrate a more nightmarish utopian world than The Matrix Resurrections.

Don’t Look Up is a very original form of comedy that comes from the creative mind of Adam McKay who not only directs but also has a role in writing the story and script. It is a refreshing departure from the norm and it succeed in making us laugh at ourselves as well as at the crazy world around us today, making it all feel current and relevant. There is so much to savour here especially the rich performances from all the star. My favourite were Leonard deCaprio’s performance together with the hilarious team up with Cate Blanchett’s deadpan portrayal of the television superstar host. Mark Rylance also left a er .. mark, with his turn as Peter the annoying and narcissistic Steve Jobs like character. The introduction to some of the features of his handphone of the future were a scream.

Don’t Look Up is the perfect satire to end this crazy year with. Despites its dark humour and devastating theme, I found it rather uplifting and enjoyable.

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