A piece meant to shed commentary on the political disparity of COVID and climate change, Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up accomplishes this goal, and does so in a funny, enticing way. With one of the most star-studded casts in recent history, this movie’s leading two are Leonardo Dicaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, both wildly successful (also batting 1.000 when it comes to popular movies). Additionally, the movie is supported by Meryl Strep, Jonah Hill, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, and Timothee Chalamet (all A-list actors and performers).
Moving into the meat and potatoes of this movie, Don’t Look Up is a fictional movie in which two scientists, Leo and Jennifer, are working at Michigan State’s highly regarded astronomy department when they discover that an extinction-level asteroid is going to directly hit the earth in just over 6 months. With this information, Leo, playing Dr. Mindy, and Jennifer, playing Ph.D. candidate Kate Dibiasky, look to meet with The President of the United States (played by Meryl Strep) as well as her Chief of Staff and son (played by Jonah Hill). In this meeting, Mindy and Dibiasky released that the incompetent and insincere Presidency of Meryl Strep is only complemented by the insincere and incompetent behavior of her Chief of Staff.
The White House sees this comet, deemed Comet Dibiasky, and attempts to exploit it for the extremely rare minerals, worth exorbitant amounts of money, that are found on the comet. While this ultimately leads to the complete extinction of society, as they don’t attempt to blow up the comet despite strong advisement from Mindy and Dibiasky. There are several side stories in this movie, including Timothee Chalomet as a love interest, Ariana Grande as a popular pop singer (yeah weird right?), and Kid Cudi as a rapper not named Kid Cudi (also kinda weird), but the primary storyline ends with Mindy’s family, with a few new additions, gathering at a dinner table and eating one last meal as we see the havoc that the comet made on the planet, wiping all life from the earth.
While this is an amazing movie that was meant to be satirically reminiscent of the climate crisis (although it kinda also works with COVID), it shed light on these issues when this movie came out in December of 2021. Additionally, Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi produced a song, called Don’t Look Up, which is both included in the movie, as well as on Spotify (highly recommend you listen to it). I highly recommend Don’t Look Up for anyone interested in a heartfelt movie recognizing what the world would be like if this dire situation ever occurred.
