This was the most relatable movie I've seen in a while. It looks like ridiculous things I would see when I open Twitter or even the TV. Its not the comet that killed the world, its us.
As a conservation biology student, I know exactly how the two scientists feel when they are trying to tell people that we are all going to die. We are currently in the 6th mass extinction, we caused it, and we have insane programs like carbon credits. We have people just trying to make money on the crisis and people think that technology is going to fix the problem and that we can continue on destroying the amazon and the old world forests. This fimmaker understands the situation perfectly to a much higher degree than I would expect someone who isn't a climate or ecological scientist to understand.
The level of stress DiCaprio’s character is so on-point for even folks who aren’t experts, but follow this topic closely. I think they main point that’s missed in the movie is: there actually was a comet 😂
@@c_ag9471 Di Caprio is actually hugely involved with the UN and trying to stop climate change. There'd a free documentary on RUclips called 'Before the flood' where he travels to the Arctic, the Philippines, India and other places and witnesses climate change first hand, or talks to those who live with it daily. He's well known for his method acting so I bet he really dug into the expierences he had learning about the crisis
my problem is when national leadership says that it comes down to individual responsibility when in reality it has to start at the top for a lot of solutions. (using greenhouse gases as an example) when people will fly around in private jets to go to climate sumits rather than "car pooling" like someone who actually cared would. or saying that the US or other european countries aren't doing enough to curb carbon emmisions when china is powered by nearly entirely coal. I can understand climate change. and i understand how many different things can play into it. but i am not going to take blame when those causeing problems are the same ones advocating for fixing it just to make some extra money.
That seems strange to me. It seemed to me absolutely drenched with satire from the beginning. There are about 5 minutes of content played straight at the beginning. But by the time they got to talk to Madam President for the first time, it seemed like a bright, blinking neon sign reading "SATIRE! SOCIAL COMMENTARY! NOTICE OUR MESSAGE!"
@@BradyPostma the problem is the satire isn’t even really satire. Switch the comet with a deadly pandemic and it’s just real life. The right in this country are impossible to satire at this point.
@@Stress-Free-K I realized it supposed to be a comedy only after reading the reviews. The movie is scary, sad and very accurate depiction of the modern society.
When people are complaining about scientific inaccuracy what they're really complaining about is that the story didn't grab them. Because you're right, if the story grabs you, you don't have time to worry about scientific inaccuracies You're too busy worrying about what comes next. Anything except the absolutely most grotesque of scientific and accuracies will slide right past so long as you're enjoying yourself. But if you're not, then all you've got to get you through the show is picking out scientific inaccuracies. or grammar mistakes. or continuity errors. or whatever floats your boat when you're bored.
What if the simple scientific inaccuracies were discussed, and chosen to remain for the simple fact of making super-literal people cringe? I don’t have that much faith in the writers, but it would be funny.
Thanks for saying all this, Steve. I was reluctant to watch the movie, but when I did I liked it and enjoyed the laughs, but especially liked the humanity in the characters. Some of the campier aspects such as the Ron Pearlman character I thought detracted. But there were a lot of interesting moments. Actually the bleakness of the movie had me thinking not about Dr. Strangelove, but about a different end of the world tragedy On The Beach, and those were the two movies I was contrasting most after viewing Don't Look Up. I felt the feelings evoked were much more similar.
This movie has horror and dystopia vibes while being grounded and present. I didnt think the meteor was a stand in for climate change but i can see it. I more so saw the movie as being oddly unsatisfying and you cant stop watching the train wreck.
As one of the science snobs- the inaccuracies didn't really bother me. I imagine they knew what the impact would look like, and decided to go with the unrealistic but instant devestation to make the impact clear. The multi-ship launch- just looked cooler and felt so dramatic in scale. I get frustrated when it's inaccurate and could easily be accurate without loss of impact. Or inaccurate and irrelevant. Futurama nails it. They strive for accuracy but the comedy comes first.
My god it is such a relief to know I am not the only one disappointed in Boba Fett... didn't finish it either... the whole time I felt like the video is slowed down a bit, especially during alleged action scenes. I'd rather watch new Mandalorian
theres only a certian group have an issue with "don't look up" its got nothing to do with asteriods either.... it does however have to do with mobs, denial and power.....
The whole criticism that a bunch of “elitist Hollywood types” shouldn’t be the ones complaining about capitalism is just another illustration of Matt Bors comics come to life. “We should improve society somewhat.” “Yet you participate in society. Curious! I am very intelligent.”
Generally, I'm tired of movies almost always having a happy ending. I think it should have a satisfying close, but not everything has to work out in the end.
That last shot of debris definitely caught me expecting a Holly post apocalyptic scene. I laughed so hard when it was shown to be floating above the planet
"Deep Impact" for example doesn't have a "happy" ending. The asteroid does hit earth but it's not "the end of the world" by any sense of the word, just a new beginning. "Armageddon" ends up NOT-ageddon. They blow up the meteor, it misses the earth, everything's hunky-dory.
I loved this movie. Want to see a masterclass in the change in the public’s perception of the news media, government, and experts over the last 25 years? Watch Deep Impact and Don’t Look Up back to back. They quite literally have exactly the same plot, even major specific plot points. Yet the worlds each movie presents couldn’t be more different. As someone old enough to remember that BOTH movies at the time they were released felt like they were largely true in the way the world would react to an incoming comet. I am frightened by how much worse things are now and the fear they’ll only get worse and worse over time.
The media is addicted to fear porn. If the comet was coming they wouldn't ignore it. They'd be showing fear images . Lookat covid. even CNN on hidden camera admit it's fear porn and even used that term. Fear and hatred sells.
@@MicahMicahel I think you've missed the point, it's not a satire about Covid (in fact the plot was written before Covid even started), nor does it attempt to portray the media reaction to every possible situation, it's a satire specifically about climate change and the way scientists have been ignored for decades, including by the media, despite overwhelming scientific evidence
@@kopiec6565 it's both, it's definitely a satire about covid, literally lift the entire fauci thing and how trump handled the crisis, it's also about climate change, it uses covid as a "past" event for reference and climate change as a crisis that could kill us in the (not so) long run
@@BADC0FFEE - It can be applied to Covid in various ways, yes, but it was written and made before Covid had even happened, so satirizing the Covid crisis wasn't the conscious intention behind this movie. If you want to use it to comment on Covid in some way, yeah....that can work. It's really a general satire about just how dysfunctional and crazy society has become (regardless of which crisis it might refer to), and it does that very well. Remember............it's all about the money. Not sometimes. Always.
@@MicahMicahel climate change is coming. There's no fear pr0n about that to match its scale of seriousness. Covid has been pretty devastating to hospitals; news barely showed what a covid ward actually looks / feels like, the pop are repeatedly taking it relatively easy, if anything we're being given "blitz spirit" but hiding the actual damage going on, so people are casual and blasze, with some saying it doesn't exist, or it's mild and exaggerated, blah blah. Don't forget poor coverage of the vaccine, so even educated people aren't sure about it if all they've seen "about" it is from news. When the media fans our fears, it's fear alone, without a proper grasp, that they're selling you.
I thought the movie was okay. Funny as heck. It was even funnier when the critics started panning it exactly the same way as the characters in the movie reacted to the problem, with squabbling, denial, blame, etc... you get the picture. Happy to see a film that had a bleak ending. I'm a little tired of happily ever ever we've had for the last 20 or so years. Wouldn't want all films like that as the films from the late 60's -70's wore me out, but every once in a while is a good reminder.
I thought the movie was a parody on climate change. I hate preachy, Hollywood movies so I blocked out the sermon and just rode with the story and then it became a really good comedy. Jennifer Lawrence is hilarious. She's funny in this movie and 'American Hustle'.
Yeah, the film has an interesting aspect to it: "You can't argue against us because if you do, you'll look just as crazy as the media people in the movie."
After having watched the video, I have to wonder if part of the problem the movie has is that satire is just really difficult now. Can you really do satire nowadays with how ridiculous everything is? I watched Death to 2021 on Netflix recently and at times it was almost impossible to tell the satirical bits from the real events. We have people dying from a disease who still argue that the disease is fake. How can you satirize that?
I have to agree with this. Even knowing it was supposed to be satire, I found myself much too troubled by it all and was left feeling deeply disturbed by it. I'm not going to say other people shouldn't enjoy it, but at the moment it sort of encapsulates too many of my own fears at once.
i think you already nailed your own answer with the "death to 2021" bit. to do an effective satire, apart from some other aspects, you have to exaggarate the subject matter to a level of absurdity that makes clear how ridiculous the portrayed people and events are. now the problem here being that looking at the situation at hand, what we have already accepted to have to live with is already the exaggerated state. for example: you have people in their thousands waiting for the return of JFK jr and him taking over the country or in case of the virus you have people in all seriousness deny it's existance. you can not possibly make that more absurd. sure, people actually denying to literally "look up" is an exaggaration, but at this point just by a tiny bit. if the events of the film were true, imagine how close that would actually play out in reality. if you take a look at idiocracy in comparison, when that was made it was a hugely exaggerated portrayal of people's behaviors at that time. this is basically not even possible anymore in this day and age. when looking at speech has been reduced to a couple of slurs, incoherent mumbling and parrotting force fed slogans ("crave electrolytes") in idiocracy, that wasn't actually the case when the film was made in reality to that extend, but now that's where we actually have arrived at. how can you portray that even worse? in further comparison when trump was in ofice, there were comedians half jokingly complaining that they are basically out of their job, because nothing they can come up with can be as absurd as actual reality at that point. it is hard ridiule what is obviously already ridiculous. one more note on the movie itself: it would have helped if at least the dialogues would have been written more clever.
@@kennethc2466 i mean there is no ethical consumption under capitalism but its also like impossible to live in the world without capitalism at this moment in time because that is the system we're under, and like we can change it but change takes time and is very difficult and also you commented this on a youtube video on your phone or laptop or whatever so you are also part of the system you're critisising like i get what you're saying but you are also consuming under capitalism just like everyone else
@@Bustermachine Doesn't satire have to make laugh? Almost to the point of tears? I suppose they didn't go far enough. Tina Fey's Sarah Palin was the last great bit of American satire that really stung.
@@hhjhj393 life has no meaning unless you give it one. whatever you find joy in or find fulfilling is where you make your meaning. thats how I view it anyway.
really? Look at all the fear porn the media loves. The media wouldn't ignore this. The media is hysterical about creating hared and fear. This is for people that maybe aren't paying attention? It's so off the base of reality. I loved the computer billionaire and it was enjoyable but didn't reflect our world where people wear two masks outside and force mandates when the CDC admits the vaccines don't prevent transmissibility. People are addicted to fear. The don't look up people would be the people that ignored the Hunter Biden ;laptop evidence that Joe Biden is corrupt and compromised by China. The media ignored it and called it Russian disinformation until months later when they said, whoops! It was always real! That was ignored but it doesn't cause fear. People are addicted to disaster fear. Tehy get dopamine kicks from fear and hatred. The media knows this and profits from it. Way off!
I liked the movie, even if it was as subtle as a bag of bricks to the face. My only gripes were the pop song that they took a break from the plot to play in its entirety, and the way every country outside the US is basically an afterthought. They did (spoilers) show China, Russia and India team up for their own rocket program which explodes during launch... I assumed the Bezos fellow sabotaged their efforts but the movie doesn't even entertain the idea lol One thing I enjoyed about the movie was the fast, frantic pace it managed to keep up for an above-average runtime. You really feel how the main characters were scrambling and fighting a constant uphill battle, with the panic rising higher and higher until the scientists are literally begging and pleading to be listened to.
When it comes to climate change, I just don't see how the subtle approach is helping anything. We've tried decades of prodding people along about climate change, and the issue is ignored. This unsubtle approach is really no different from that scene from Sorkin's Newsroom interviewing the EPA administrator.
@@aarond0623 Yeah I'm inclined to agree. Capitalist society is completely incapable of solving climate change so people should be a hell of a lot louder and angrier about climate change
@@billabobyt It might have made a more interesting movie to have a group of scientists in some insignificant Third - World country come up with a brilliant solution which gets ignored because of where they're from. The Americo - centrism of Hollywood is understandable but a little vexing to non - Americans.
The pop song is fking hilarious! That's exactly what would happen. The movie was poking fun at Hollywood and the pompous delusion that they can solve big problems by putting on a concert or hosting a telethon.
I enjoyed it. I think the science and its lack of accuracy, like the rocket launches, was part of the satire. It falls inline with the general response from the government in the film. A last minute solution, poorly thought out and without input from the majority of the scientific community. I also liked the ending. It wasn't surprising, given that they told us in the first 15-minutes, that there was a 100% chance of global destruction. Specifically, the moment when they fully accept the reality that the earth is going to be destroyed, and they go shopping for good food and good wine. They came together as friends and family and treated each other kindly. It was a nice way to end things.
@@DavidNicholson101 I think that was the point? By letting them just sit there and talk depicts their defeat - one caused by humanity's negligence and greed. It's unsettling, because the treat has become too big and a the way they respond, shows an accurate presentation how some people may respond in such a doom scenario. It's a bit of existential horror that I personally enjoyed.
That’s the stage I’m at for the fossil fuel crisis. When I saw the value of untapped oil left in the ground, I knew we were doomed. In the book Ministry for the Future, one of the infographic chapters states that there is $1,500 trillion dollars left to be made by the oil industry. No oil executive, Middle East royalty, or oil nation bureaucrat is leaving that type of wealth untapped.
idiocracy has some uncomfortable and I think unintentional pro eugenics themes going on, with the whole "stupid poor people outbred the smart rich people" thats what I get going back anyway
Totally just my perspective as I watched, but I found it brilliant that the tension built towards the climax, was not the typical "how are they gonna get out of this ok?" It was "they better kill everyone!" And they did! The creators chose to take the risk, and follow thru. Morbid, and a little dark(or "hopeless") but it was the only way the narrative of the movie worked. This also struck a chord with me as how the main characters chose to spend their last few hours, is all id hope for myself and my family in the same situation. And the most effective way to make a simple dinner as profound as it was, was to destroy everything in the end.
So I'm in the group you're talking about, I absolutley hated the film but not for the reasons you stated. I had a number of things that really bothered me; the cruel neurodivergent coding on the billionare guy, the messy plotting, the baffling editing, but the big issue is i think it fails as satire. I expect satire to be smart, and I expect it to respect the audience. Above all I expect it to understand what it's satirizing. I'm not talking about the science stuff, that get a pass as fictiphysics, I don't think it understands why people are apathetic and ambivilant. The movie's presents us in act one with a simple solution that everyone agrees on and is fully funded that people just choose not to follow. Climate change is a massive problem that requires a host of complex solutions and fundemental changes to society. It becomes too big to take in and when you add in how many massive social problems with complex solutions it adds up to compassion fatigue. Likewise the satire of the media is shallow, presenting them as silly people only interested in celebrity gossip. There's plenty of room to do intelligent satire of the effects of bothsidesism or the way media will stoke argument instead of discussion. Essentially there was an opportunity to make an intelligent satire that said something, but this is shallow and also very mean spirited. I felt pandered to, and that would be alright if it could have the effect you hope, I wish it would. But considering how smug the film is and how it looks down on the people it should be trying to convince, I think if it has any effect at all it will be the opposite. It felt very much like it was presenting people who don't fight climate change the way a film like God's Not Dead presents Atheists, would that film convince you of anything? Sorry for the essay. I do appreciate your perspective and i'm glad you had an enjoyable experience of the film, I just didn't and maybe I've read too much Pratchett and have too high an expectation for satire.
Haven't seen the movie yet, but I can relate to your critique because I've had a similar response to other satirical works. A lot of movies about societal problems tend to reduce them down to the other side being stupid or mean, when in reality we have a lot more in common with our enemies than we'd like to admit. Let's use billionaires as an example: regardless of whether they were born into that excessive wealth or rose to it, that ridiculous amount of social power is their normal, and losing it all--and the freedom that comes with it--is horrifying to them in the same way losing our own comparatively pitiful power and freedom would be horrifying to us. In addition, billionaires don't think about the disgusting amount of harm they're doing for the same reason we don't think about the environmental damage and human rights abuses that go into our everyday consumer products: that kind of awareness is uncomfortable at best and can absolutely break you at worst, and most people would rather not be that miserable. I'm not saying we should feel sorry for billionaires or cut them any slack, but I am saying that there's nothing uniquely inhuman about them, and we need to understand that if we genuinely want to create a society without any billionaires, or at the very least pressure the ones we have into behaving less destructively. Same goes for any type of societal villain. Hate them, fight them, and destroy them if necessary, but never for a moment forget that they are human beings. Haven't read as much Pratchett as I'd like, either, but I think he's agree with that. Even his most nefarious characters were still, you know, *people.*
Great film. The direction was like McCay's other film Vice, quite avant-garde for a mainstream film. Although Streep's president was a Republican, I believe Hill's Secretary of State was a Democrat. I'm glad the prayer scene at the end was played straight.
actually, that's one of the movie's critiques, goverment, CEO's, ppl in power, etc are convicing people the solution and the issue it's too complex when the only complexity it's that it means that billonaires loose money. Also he wasn't really neurodivergent coded, it was just that he lacked humanity and tried to be sympathetic, and neurodivergent people can be villains too. The whole point of satires it's to disrespect and simple things down. Everyone's entlited to their own opinion but you are just using words to sound smart lol
Regarding millionaires, one piece has a fitting metaphor, theworld nobles that are so far removes and accountable to no one and literally have helmets to protect them from the air of common people. That i what makes them with few examples that actually get humbled, very very few, inhuman, because they see themselves above everyone else and not living in the same world as everyone else. They learn to be inhuman because they see most others as inhuman. The world nobles are the worst there, i guess you could say they are still human but shown in the most obnoxious nasty and hatable way possible. Its not that rich people are literally inhumans, but they learn to be. And often grow up learning to be. Its opersonally, i i were for self interest, they also are harmed by the toxic bubble they created to shield themselves from the world. A golden cage if you want that helps no one and starves an kills the world as side effect. And yeaha comet is a bad metaphor for climat change, using the day after tomorrow as start and make it far better , that would work. Or absurd scifi with a technology that i used and causes that. Can work as well. Honestly anime can be pretty good at showing that scenario, some absurdism really helps selling it. O dark absurd humor. I mean it should make people think, then pretentiou is notth right tone, its absurd dark humor.
I found the movie a bit on the optimistic side. The idea that Congress wrote and passed a massive spending bill without a conservative Democrat having a principled disagreement or concerns about something or a Republican filibustering the bill because of some psychotic conspiracy fiction they thought up or because it’s communism or just to own the libs is an idea too unrealistic for me to take seriously. Any bill Congress would have shat out the evening before the comet hit would be wholly insufficient, way too late, and probably would have gutted what little regulations, taxes, and social welfare we have left.
yeah, case in point, people don't like this movie because they take it too seriously. Interesting you actually found it too unrealistic to actually take it seriously enough.
It's the same reason why Stephen Colbert's now-legendary performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner was met with glares, disdain and printed commentary about what a poor job he did...until the video made its way onto the Internet and became a sensation. Stephen hit so close to home, he personally stung the ones in attendance there, especially President George W. Bush. This was what made him a household name. Now, compare this with the reactions to Don't Look Up, and you'll see there are quite a few similarities. This hits really close to home for a lot of media figures -- so much so that they're lashing out. And, frankly, that's providing us with some additional, unexpected entertainment.
I saw it after having just seen the trailer, and yeah I really liked it overall. I do agree it could use a bit of tightening in places but my biggest thing is I feel the people criticizing that it's too blunt and unsubtle with it satire are barking up the wrong tree. Yes it is a very blunt movie, and *that's okay* you are allowed to be very blunt and go subtext is for cowards. You don't *have* to be subtle, and here I think it helps with both the messaging and the comedy.
Loved how the movie (accurately enough) portrayed how the big donors own our democratically elected leaders. Edit: well of course “loathed” is a more accurate description than “loved”. Either way, the “big donors own our leaders” bit remains accurate, unfortunately.
I watched it last night and couldn't sleep until 6 am this morning from the utter anxiety and dread. Idiocracy was more digestible because it was, at the time, in the future. Don't Look Up's satire has already happened with the sheer audacity of conservative ignorance and monstrosity. We're f_cked.
I couldn't laugh. Well, at first, it was nervous laughter. But like, the absurdity isn't absurd. They did this. We did this already. We ARE doing this. Climate change, pandemic....this isn't absurd any more. People are still DYING in droves because of the absurdity. I lost my dad to the "absurdity". Like.. you can't point and laugh at something and say "it's a joke".. when there are REAL WORLD examples of that thing.
Well-articulated. I agree with most all points. I thought the movie was meh at first, but the more I think about it and see the real story it gets better. It mashes Deep Impact, Armageddon, and Idiocracy with a caricature spin and destroys all 3 movies. That Last supper scene was gold. "We really did have everything."
Scientific inaccuracy does tend to bother me in movies. It did not in this case. It was done to serve the purpose. That said, I think it would have done better by making the timeline longer (not too long, but a few years) and still have nothing happen.
The only real scientific inaccuracy I noticed was the third one Steve mentioned about the effects of the impact. The first two I put more in the category of technical inaccuracies or rather logical inconsistencies. The space shuttle program being completely retired as opposed to simply decommissioned is a factual error, but I feel like it was a necessary one. One in which the filmmakers knew was erroneous, but decided to fictionalize this part of reality for the sake of story telling. Similarly, the idea of launching multiple rockets that close to each other simultaneously is also ludicrous, but the film actually kind of lampshades and satirizes that by showing one crashing into another (an example of exactly the kind of catastrophic disaster that might result in such a scenario), but also points out both the desperate nature of the mission and the incompetence of those organizing it (consistent with the film's tone and message). So, I'm willing to look past those type of inaccuracies for the sake of the story. A similar argument could be made for how Jonah Hill's character survives near the end, when he emerges into complete devastation. In reality, he would have been killed, but the comedy works better if he survives as the last man on Earth trying to tiktok a non-existent audience.
Howard the Duck is good, actually--not great, mind you, but entertaining and creative, at least, and the jokes land. Best I can figure about the reaction to Don't Look Up is that some people essentially blamed it for making them feel uncomfortable and other people are angry that it didn't effectively "solve" climate change according to their sensibilities.
I saw the scientific inaccuracies as an intential parody of political grand standing. Did not even mention the ridiculous space ark at the end, which seemed to me to be a parody of Elon's ridiculous plans for colonizing Mars or even hyperloop. I was reminded a lot of dr. Strangelove.
As someone who loves it when science is gotten right in movies, I laughed really hard at “these are the [objections] I respect the least. Great video, Steve. :)
I felt the movie just had a major theme confusion problem. Was it meant to be a serious allegory? A goofball comedy? A dark satire? It didn't seem like it could decide, and it was way too long. It was ok I guess.
its a respectable skill but I have to wonder what other creators/presenters you are watching because its one of the most basic ways to improve your public speaking and pretty much everyone in said roles should be the same way.
I loved it. It made fun of everyone and was clearly satire from the first scenes. Seems more like a political review bombing since the right and corporate media felt attacked
The right? I saw it all as both sides feeling attacked. They were both certainly made fun of. Sometimes you couldn’t even tell what side was supposed to be what. But I think that was the point: there’s actually very little difference between right and left politics. They’re politics.
@@kaleip7652 theres no left party in America, and there is extreme differences. watching any philosophy tube video for instance will make it pretty clear just how fundamentally different we are in our worldviews and goals
@@MistaZULE thats not a cult, and thats a wierd standard to have. for instance I would hate anyone who worked closely with Donald, working for a fascist is something I think is worth holding against people. bernie isn't a fascist obviously far from it but just pointing out that doesn't not seem to be a useful or fair standard.
Thanks for this take. I have some friends that were pointing out the hypocrisy argument on the basis that the filmmakers were white. I'm sympathetic to the idea that colonialism created this mess, and it absolutely did, but as you said, that's no reason not to have the conversation. What better use of the privilege white beneficiaries of colonialism and capitalism have than to take down the powers that gave them that privilege? I saw it on the 10th at Coolidge Corner. The thesis of the movie comes about halfway through the film, when things look to be going alright, and then swiftly turn around, right in front of the eyes of the public. The point is that the rich and powerful don't even need to hide their brazeness for so many of us to go along with it. They're not even smart enough to make grand conspiracies. They just operate as if this is the only system that could ever work. Mark Rylance is brilliant as the stand in for the Gates and Zuckerbergs of the world and the performances across the board are spot on. If I had a criticism, it's that the movie trains its sights pretty squarely on America, when I subscribe to the notion of Ned Beatty's speech in Network, that there are no more nations, only corporations. The problems we face when it comes to the pandemic and climate extinction are the result of the protection of private capitalist class property at all costs, and maintaining class and social hierarchy. Just because the US is uniquely committed to that ideal, doesn't mean it's not a problem that transcends borders. Remember: the best case scenario is that we have 8 years to halve carbon output in order to avert extinction. Essentially, we have that much time to return us to 1970 emission levels while serving a population of 8 billion people. It's possible, because the top billion polluters contribute more than half of all emissions. But it would require a complete restructuring of society not seen on this scale in centuries. Right now, we're at the part of the movie where Dr. Mindy gets out of his car to look at the comet. The failed mission by the Asian countries in the film represents the 2030 IPCC deadline and the dinner table scene is what the 2030s (and 2040s if we're lucky) will look like if we don't meet that deadline. I thought this article also did a good job of saying how critics missed the point, either through their ignorance or bad faith: www.currentaffairs.org/2021/12/critics-of-dont-look-up-are-missing-the-entire-point
"I have some friends that were pointing out the hypocrisy argument on the basis that the filmmakers were white" your friends are idiots "Remember: the best case scenario is that we have 8 years to halve carbon output in order to avert extinction" human extinction? you're just making shit up now
That last criticism reminded me of a critique I read for a book in a series of books about solving mysteries in the far distant future. The distant future setting is kinda arbitrarily chosen just to give the characters more history to dig into and the world they live in and their characterizations are pretty similar to our own in service of making the books easy reads. This critic lampoon a particular book because it portrayed a character as being an abuser, misogynist and criminal. Her one and only critique was that the writer didn't choose to portray some star trek like future where such things simply don't happen. She doesn't care about the kidnappings, the assassinations, the terroristic bombings, a global conspiracy that leaves a whole planet in danger of being wiped out because raising the alarm would have threatened a few powerful people's fortunes. She didn't care about the wars or the bubbling conflict with the only other aliens in the universe. All she cared about was the fact that in this one way alone humans could still be assholes, and that somehow made the book fundamentally bad in her mind.
So many people take sci fi shows to be factual and it bugs me to no end. I’m not a Christian in particular but the other day this atheist went off about how “she was so excited to meet aliens just so they could destroy Christian beliefs” like what if the aliens we meet are like the Covenant, hyper religious and not like the Vulcan the way she believes?
wait... "a global conspiracy that leaves a whole planet in danger of being wiped out because raising the alarm would have threatened a few powerful people's fortunes"? Exxon is that you?
@@williamhanna9718 atheists are starting to get on my nerves. *those* atheists have the same energy as *those* Christians. I'm agnostic because we literally won't know until death and it seems silly to spend life arguing about it. I also just think it's incredibly human to think everything is even within our comprehension. Human ego is wild lol
I haven't watched the movie. I saw a preview for it come up when I opened Netflix, and just from the preview, I knew it wasn't for me. I'm the kind of person who should've liked the movie. I lean left. But the thing about good satire is, it has to be subtle and measured to be good. From the preview I saw, it has all the subtlety of an SNL skit. It's like someone poking you in the ribs every few seconds, "You get it? You get it? Aren't I clever?"
As for its satire on prioritizing profits, that is very applicable. Look at climate change and the oil industry. One of the biggest arguments against doing anything is profits. Fighting man's effect on the climate will cost too much. Reducing our dependence on oil, costs too much. They would rather optimize profits now sucking as much oil as they can out of the earth without considering that it will run out one day. Then, everyone will be f@cked as we didn't properly prepare for that day. Who cares? That is 75 to 100 years away (from the numbers I read). That isn't our problem.
I liked the movie. I saw it as a parody of Hollywood and elites. Their superficiality and ignorance when dealing with real problems. The fact that it was so lost on Hollywood that they thought they were making a clever and meaningful allegory in the form of a movie. The one critique I have was the ending where a spaceship lasted 20k years? Lol. That was the most farfetched thing ever. But I liked the other ending where Jennifer Lawerence and her boyfriend had dinner with Leo DiCaprio's family and spent their last moments reminiscing and praying. That as sweet and what my family would probably be doing if the world was ending.
I loved it, it was panned by the media in the UK, but I was surprised by how on the nose it was about the possible US government, media, public reactions to crisis and catastrophes. I just wonder if the critics have taken a look at the world and how we've handled climate change or the pandemic so far. Don't look up was good.
I hate the hypocrisy argument, I really feel like it comes from people who care more about feeling morally superior than they do about actually solving the issues that they claim to care so much about. You have a star studded movie that is number one on Netflix that is telling the world to pay attention to climate change and you find a way to be mad still. hypocrisy is not really an argument, just because someone is a hypocrite doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. Second these actors are using their platform to bring attention to an important issue, especially Leonardo DiCaprio climate change is basically all that he talks about. These folks are using capitalism and their fame to advocate for climate change legislation and care. What else do you want like? For them to be monks?
I absolutely agree with your take. I really enjoyed this movie, despite feeling emotionally wrecked at the end. It was powerful and impactful, and I was surprised throughout how accurately they depicted the world (not necessarily the science, but like the decisions the president makes, the way the memes spread, the tiktok trends etc) it felt refreshingly real
The thing that I love about your videos and your commentary is that it is nuanced. You rarely stray into the "it's all black or white, either / or" mentality, and I appreciate that very much. We seem, as a society, as a culture, and as individuals, to immediately move into the "us vs. them" mentality. I realize that that instinct is exactly that... an instinct, along with just being baked into our physiologies, what with how our brains are structured, and how our minds work, etc. But it takes a willingness and an ability to break beyond that inborn desire to label everything as "good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, us vs. them" mentality. I often agree with many of your points of view, in many of your videos, though there are a number that I also disagree with. But it's your thoughtfulness that I admire a lot. I appreciate what you do, Steve. Thank you.
I thought this movie was so much fun! It was funny and oddly heart warming. Perfect post credit scene 👌! These seniors thinking they can beat death- so delusional
Movies rely on consequences. If the hero does the Thing...the threat is just...solved. Moviegoers (hence the whole biz model), it seems, rely on the problem ALWAYS being solved. Early Hollywood and TV had LAWS forbidding them from ever letting the bad guys win. "The ending wasn't...happy. The consequences arrived." (sniff) Sigh. ETA: Sequels? Whole franchises? Problem WAS solved. But threat...is bigger...is over there!...didn't die QUITE all the way to dead-dead... As long as we get a cookie we're acclimatized to being re-scared for the sequel. To, I guess, threat to future world cookie supply.
I watched "blindly" without any idea what sort of movie I was going to watch. I expected a drama/sci-fi like Deep Impact and Armageddon, and definitely wasn't expecting a comedy. Took a while to catch on, with multiple instances of "Well, that's not very realistic.. ffs!!" but once I realised, I enjoyed it much more.. 10/10, as long as you know it's a comedy.
Terrific analysis Mr. Shives. You're absolutely right when it comes to the fact that nobody is safe in the world of capitalism, and while rehabilitations must be made to better society from what it is now, celebrities with a platform can protest the system's flaws as long as their actions follow their words, which sadly doesn't amount to much when it comes from hypocritical celebrities. With that being said, Don't Look Up is one of the best films Adam McKay has delivered in years, and redeems him after Vice, an abysmal and condescending piece of cinema that failed on its satire more than it delivered. It's also commendable that Don't Look Up is one of the numerous original movies to be released in 2021, as Hollywood and Netflix do every year. Original cinema continues to persist despite franchise ips; that's fact, not opinion. Scientific inaccuracies be damned, because with the exception of movies projecting for scientific accuracy or based on real events correlating with science, other movies work by functioning with the logic they've built for their own universe. Armchair scientific nerds with too much time on their hands overanalyze movies like Don't Look Up, so based on the films' events the timeline of the rockets progress the goal of the story and messages. While Adam McKay has the tendency to buy into his own hype and write like a college student who believes he's smarter than society because he watches RUclips, the satire delivered more here than it tumbled. Don't Look Up isn't completely hopeless, nor is it completely reliant on insincere irony. The final scenes at the dinner table with Randall's family and colleagues, after a dire battle against misinformation and Randall refusing to embark on the sleeper ships that leave Earth, are emotionally riveting. These scenes display the type of nuance that McKay is capable of when he's not sniffing the supposed majesty of his satire. Don't Look Up, for its worth and shortcomings, is a satire worthy of our times and has been rightfully endorsed by critic organizations like the American Film Institute and National Board of Review.
Rotten Tomatoes is .. rotten... especially the garbage that they promote from major studios.. and they edit the fan reviews.. to limit the impact of the fans.. overall.. for just about any film.. Rotten Tomatoes is WORTHLESS.. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Something I thought about: How many preachy ass, Christian-fundamentalist loving, conservative-victimhood movies have been made over the years? Like yeah, God's Not Dead managed to break more into the 'mainstream' and was a thing for a couple years with a couple of follow-up films, but...aside of that, how many actually "made it"? Not many. They are the picturebook definition of an entertainment product 'preaching to the choir'. These films are blatant and obvious with their own message of "poor, downtrodden Christians" being victimized in a world that "hates them", and it's just a giant pity party, but also a pity party that only exists to make conservative WASPs justify their own views about the world. Then one mildly Left-leaning movie breaks into the mainstream and everyone loses their minds. All it really says is, "Hey, humanity has big problems, and following corrupt, rich leaders who have no actual goals but their own self-preservation in store, are leading all of us into destruction. We should do something better before it is too late."
A lot of good points. This also kinda sums up why I don’t wanna see the movie. I’m glad it got made, but after all the people who pushed back against heath advice during the pandemic, I think it’d be depressing to watch a 2 and a half hour movie showing the same thing. Like I said, I’m glad it was made, but I also just don’t wanna see it right now
I'm so disappointed in people missing the point of this movie.....you are LITERALLY showing the movie to be more documentary than fiction. Missing the forest for the trees. #PleaseFinishUsComet 😔
Seems like there are a vocal few that hated it. I loved it, as did everyone I've talked to. A lot of the comedy is "cringe comedy" as in, it's supposed to be in your face and making you cringe because you know that's exactly what's happening in the real world. I suppose if you either don't have the awareness to see what's happening in the real world, or you just don't like "cringe comedy", you wouldn't like the movie.
That movie criticized our Glorious Corporations, Great Tech Capitalists, who are glorious men and father figures to all, and our wonderful media! How dare they do that!
My biggest problem with _Don't Look Up_ is precisely that the apocalypse it depicts happens nigh-instantly, which allows us to convince ourselves that if we miss the deadline for averting a catastrophe, we'll suffer from the knowledge of what we've done for about two days and then it'll all be over. But climate change and the COVID pandemic are going to be a long, miserable, drawn-out period of suffering where we'll have years and years to agonize over our failures of leadership. It obviously sucks for the people in _Don't Look Up_ that the planet and the human race are instantly annihilated, but it almost indulges them in giving them one singular moment of judgment instead of the long, drawn-out horror-fest battle for survival we're going to experience. It feels like a weird Christian rapture scenario in that regard.
I agree with you on all points, but the bleakness makes it so I don't want to watch the movie. I'm aware of how grim things are, I'm not looking to be reminded of it when I indulge in entertainment. That's a me problem though, and if people find value in the film that's great. I'd just rather spend 2 1/4 hours doing something else.
I think the six months thing was the point and actually done intentionally. The moment they said they only had six months I knew they were most likely fucked no matter what they did. But that wouldn’t stop humanity from panicking and giving it their best shot to stop it. But exactly the opposite happened in the movie. It’s an exaggerated metaphor of how we ignore the massive problems that effect the entire globe, such as climate change, on the time scale of years because if something threatening isn’t happening soon humanity naturally feels apathetic towards it. That’s just how our brains evolved. The immediate dangers such as predators always took precedence because that was what killed us, so we evolved to only focus on immediate dangers instead of long term ones. Modern society is a relatively recent thing so the hardware that is our brains hasn’t had time to catch up with this new development. This movie is basically that same apathetic response to long term threats dialed up to 11, along with the politicization and trivialization of science that we have done out of corruption and a desire to ignore these kind of issues. It is also a metaphor of how even for shorter term threats we are starting to ignore them or procrastinate on taking action, which is basically what happened with Covid. TLDR: This movie is an exaggeration of our reactions to long term threats such as Climate Change in the past few decades and the horrible political transformation our society has undergone in recent years, that has prevented us from appropriately responding to even immediate threats such as Covid.
I haven't watched the movie and don't plan to, but if I did, I'd probably be in the "hopeless" camp. Like, I already fully understand that humanity is facing multiple, slow-moving, existential threats. It seems really bad and hopeless to me in real life, because I have so little power to change anything and the people that DO have that power most certainly won't do what needs to be done. I don't really have a desire to see a movie that highlights that. I get it already. I'm depressed enough as it is. No jokes about it are going to make reality seem less bleak to me.
I dunno about anyone else, but my problem with it was that it wasn't funny. As a satire, it was a cut and paste job, only with a comet instead of climate change/covid. There was nothing in the movie that late night comedians hadn't brought up over the last 10 years.
The Dr Who story Inferno (1970) destroyed the entire world but the story was set on a parallel Earth since otherwise the show would have to end. An excellent conception but not executed as well as it might have been.
Thanks for posting this Steve. I am way too anxious to watch a movie about us failing to stop a disaster.. the trailer alone had me running to the nearest corner with my blankie
Another scientific inaccuracy: A comet of this size on an impact course would be detected *far* earlier than 6 months before impact even by amateur astronomers, let alone professionals. At 6 months out, it would probably be visible with the naked eye. Also also: The "let's monetize the comet!"-plan by the Steve Jobs/Elon Musk parody (who was the best part of the movie, imho) was inherently flawed, because it doesn't matter if the earth is impacted by one big object or several smaller ones - the energy imparted is the same. Tho this might have been deliberate.
I was wondering the same thing on that last point. I think it was partially meant to be capitalist hubris, but maybe based on a plausible principle? Several smaller comets of the same volume/mass would have greater surface area to evaporate in space and/or burn off in the atmosphere. There must be some way that the BEADS plan could work, even if it means breaking the comet up into more pieces, farther from Earth.
Please correct me when I'm wrong, I'm not an astrophysicist. To spot a comet someone needs to look in its direction, right? It's a chance discovery in the movie and I took it this is how it's likely to happen in real live. It could have been discovered earlier but no one did because no one looked? A comet itself is invisible, we see its tail, right? And for it to have a tail it needs to be close enough to a sun? So it could travel through empty space without us noticing for a while.
So, quick question.. isnt ablation from atmosphere burn affected by surface area vs mass? I was just thinking if you did reduce it enough more would burn up in orbit, but my science background sucks. Of course you'd also maybe put tons of heavy metals in the atmosphere and potentially put enough shit in orbit to create a kepler cascade. None of this adresses the point of the movie of course, just goofing around.
Both of these inaccuracies can be interpret as deliberate if you think about it, it's the type of movie where we can only guess (but they probably are inaccuracies).
It was a funny movie. i liked it for the most part. lots of plot holes though. and lots of stupid moments but it portrays the possibility that those moments might actually be something that could happen. just look at trump and how he became president and his entire 4 year term. just look at our government as a whole dems and reps. lol
I was pleased that you mentioned Dr. Strangelove. It came to mind several times as you were discussing the themes and plot points of Don’t Look Up. It is probably my favorite dark comedy, and (*spoilers*) the world gets destroyed in that one, too.
![Yailin La Mas Viral, @kreizyk.official - Dale 2 (Remix) [Video Oficial]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JaYHBzgqz94/mqdefault.jpg)
This was the most relatable movie I've seen in a while. It looks like ridiculous things I would see when I open Twitter or even the TV. Its not the comet that killed the world, its us.
As a conservation biology student, I know exactly how the two scientists feel when they are trying to tell people that we are all going to die. We are currently in the 6th mass extinction, we caused it, and we have insane programs like carbon credits. We have people just trying to make money on the crisis and people think that technology is going to fix the problem and that we can continue on destroying the amazon and the old world forests. This fimmaker understands the situation perfectly to a much higher degree than I would expect someone who isn't a climate or ecological scientist to understand.
The level of stress DiCaprio’s character is so on-point for even folks who aren’t experts, but follow this topic closely. I think they main point that’s missed in the movie is: there actually was a comet 😂
@@c_ag9471 Di Caprio is actually hugely involved with the UN and trying to stop climate change. There'd a free documentary on RUclips called 'Before the flood' where he travels to the Arctic, the Philippines, India and other places and witnesses climate change first hand, or talks to those who live with it daily. He's well known for his method acting so I bet he really dug into the expierences he had learning about the crisis
my problem is when national leadership says that it comes down to individual responsibility when in reality it has to start at the top for a lot of solutions. (using greenhouse gases as an example) when people will fly around in private jets to go to climate sumits rather than "car pooling" like someone who actually cared would. or saying that the US or other european countries aren't doing enough to curb carbon emmisions when china is powered by nearly entirely coal.
I can understand climate change. and i understand how many different things can play into it. but i am not going to take blame when those causeing problems are the same ones advocating for fixing it just to make some extra money.
@@rickamsler3088 100% with you on that
It’s capitalism
I like the movie, I'll admit at first I didn't realize it was satire but once I did I found it to be very funny.
That seems strange to me.
It seemed to me absolutely drenched with satire from the beginning. There are about 5 minutes of content played straight at the beginning. But by the time they got to talk to Madam President for the first time, it seemed like a bright, blinking neon sign reading "SATIRE! SOCIAL COMMENTARY! NOTICE OUR MESSAGE!"
@@BradyPostma the problem is the satire isn’t even really satire. Switch the comet with a deadly pandemic and it’s just real life. The right in this country are impossible to satire at this point.
@@Zaccheus4 Eh, in the real world the science would have been more accurate.
At what parts did you actually laugh? I would like to rewatch the "very funny" parts cuz I missed them.
@@Stress-Free-K I realized it supposed to be a comedy only after reading the reviews. The movie is scary, sad and very accurate depiction of the modern society.
this was a really well put together video
Rule of acquisition #284 - Deep down, everyone's a Ferengi. The sad part is we are going to extinguish ourselves by hook by crook or by nuke.
When people are complaining about scientific inaccuracy what they're really complaining about is that the story didn't grab them. Because you're right, if the story grabs you, you don't have time to worry about scientific inaccuracies You're too busy worrying about what comes next. Anything except the absolutely most grotesque of scientific and accuracies will slide right past so long as you're enjoying yourself. But if you're not, then all you've got to get you through the show is picking out scientific inaccuracies. or grammar mistakes. or continuity errors. or whatever floats your boat when you're bored.
What if the simple scientific inaccuracies were discussed, and chosen to remain for the simple fact of making super-literal people cringe?
I don’t have that much faith in the writers, but it would be funny.
Didn't even hear about this movie until right now. Looks fun.
Thanks for saying all this, Steve. I was reluctant to watch the movie, but when I did I liked it and enjoyed the laughs, but especially liked the humanity in the characters. Some of the campier aspects such as the Ron Pearlman character I thought detracted. But there were a lot of interesting moments. Actually the bleakness of the movie had me thinking not about Dr. Strangelove, but about a different end of the world tragedy On The Beach, and those were the two movies I was contrasting most after viewing Don't Look Up. I felt the feelings evoked were much more similar.
Really good video. I like to imagine the book "Lucifer's Hammer" as the film's sequel. 😃
This movie has horror and dystopia vibes while being grounded and present. I didnt think the meteor was a stand in for climate change but i can see it. I more so saw the movie as being oddly unsatisfying and you cant stop watching the train wreck.
As one of the science snobs- the inaccuracies didn't really bother me. I imagine they knew what the impact would look like, and decided to go with the unrealistic but instant devestation to make the impact clear.
The multi-ship launch- just looked cooler and felt so dramatic in scale.
I get frustrated when it's inaccurate and could easily be accurate without loss of impact. Or inaccurate and irrelevant.
Futurama nails it. They strive for accuracy but the comedy comes first.
My god it is such a relief to know I am not the only one disappointed in Boba Fett... didn't finish it either... the whole time I felt like the video is slowed down a bit, especially during alleged action scenes.
I'd rather watch new Mandalorian
theres only a certian group have an issue with "don't look up" its got nothing to do with asteriods either.... it does however have to do with mobs, denial and power.....
The whole criticism that a bunch of “elitist Hollywood types” shouldn’t be the ones complaining about capitalism is just another illustration of Matt Bors comics come to life.
“We should improve society somewhat.”
“Yet you participate in society. Curious! I am very intelligent.”
What’s everybody’s problem with this movie?! It’s very well going to happen sooner probably than later! Good luck everyone! Nice knowing you!
Don't look up is proof that a movie can have good politics and still be a bad movie (from a film-making standpoint).
omg yessss
Generally, I'm tired of movies almost always having a happy ending. I think it should have a satisfying close, but not everything has to work out in the end.
True. I was very surprised that the world ended at the end I expected some last minute action that's complete Nonsens but very Hollywood
@@stephjovi I didn’t. You could tell where they were going with this
That last shot of debris definitely caught me expecting a Holly post apocalyptic scene. I laughed so hard when it was shown to be floating above the planet
You should watch more Korean movies. They will crush your soul.
"Deep Impact" for example doesn't have a "happy" ending. The asteroid does hit earth but it's not "the end of the world" by any sense of the word, just a new beginning. "Armageddon" ends up NOT-ageddon. They blow up the meteor, it misses the earth, everything's hunky-dory.
I loved this movie. Want to see a masterclass in the change in the public’s perception of the news media, government, and experts over the last 25 years? Watch Deep Impact and Don’t Look Up back to back. They quite literally have exactly the same plot, even major specific plot points. Yet the worlds each movie presents couldn’t be more different. As someone old enough to remember that BOTH movies at the time they were released felt like they were largely true in the way the world would react to an incoming comet. I am frightened by how much worse things are now and the fear they’ll only get worse and worse over time.
The media is addicted to fear porn. If the comet was coming they wouldn't ignore it. They'd be showing fear images . Lookat covid. even CNN on hidden camera admit it's fear porn and even used that term. Fear and hatred sells.
@@MicahMicahel I think you've missed the point, it's not a satire about Covid (in fact the plot was written before Covid even started), nor does it attempt to portray the media reaction to every possible situation, it's a satire specifically about climate change and the way scientists have been ignored for decades, including by the media, despite overwhelming scientific evidence
@@kopiec6565 it's both, it's definitely a satire about covid, literally lift the entire fauci thing and how trump handled the crisis, it's also about climate change, it uses covid as a "past" event for reference and climate change as a crisis that could kill us in the (not so) long run
@@BADC0FFEE - It can be applied to Covid in various ways, yes, but it was written and made before Covid had even happened, so satirizing the Covid crisis wasn't the conscious intention behind this movie. If you want to use it to comment on Covid in some way, yeah....that can work. It's really a general satire about just how dysfunctional and crazy society has become (regardless of which crisis it might refer to), and it does that very well. Remember............it's all about the money. Not sometimes. Always.
@@MicahMicahel climate change is coming. There's no fear pr0n about that to match its scale of seriousness. Covid has been pretty devastating to hospitals; news barely showed what a covid ward actually looks / feels like, the pop are repeatedly taking it relatively easy, if anything we're being given "blitz spirit" but hiding the actual damage going on, so people are casual and blasze, with some saying it doesn't exist, or it's mild and exaggerated, blah blah. Don't forget poor coverage of the vaccine, so even educated people aren't sure about it if all they've seen "about" it is from news. When the media fans our fears, it's fear alone, without a proper grasp, that they're selling you.
I saw it after a few negative reviews but didn't know what to expect. Really enjoyed it, too close to reality in some ways but was moved at the end.
I thought the movie was okay. Funny as heck. It was even funnier when the critics started panning it exactly the same way as the characters in the movie reacted to the problem, with squabbling, denial, blame, etc... you get the picture.
Happy to see a film that had a bleak ending. I'm a little tired of happily ever ever we've had for the last 20 or so years. Wouldn't want all films like that as the films from the late 60's -70's wore me out, but every once in a while is a good reminder.
I thought the movie was a parody on climate change. I hate preachy, Hollywood movies so I blocked out the sermon and just rode with the story and then it became a really good comedy. Jennifer Lawrence is hilarious. She's funny in this movie and 'American Hustle'.
Yeah, the film has an interesting aspect to it: "You can't argue against us because if you do, you'll look just as crazy as the media people in the movie."
After having watched the video, I have to wonder if part of the problem the movie has is that satire is just really difficult now. Can you really do satire nowadays with how ridiculous everything is?
I watched Death to 2021 on Netflix recently and at times it was almost impossible to tell the satirical bits from the real events. We have people dying from a disease who still argue that the disease is fake. How can you satirize that?
I have to agree with this. Even knowing it was supposed to be satire, I found myself much too troubled by it all and was left feeling deeply disturbed by it. I'm not going to say other people shouldn't enjoy it, but at the moment it sort of encapsulates too many of my own fears at once.
i think you already nailed your own answer with the "death to 2021" bit. to do an effective satire, apart from some other aspects, you have to exaggarate the subject matter to a level of absurdity that makes clear how ridiculous the portrayed people and events are. now the problem here being that looking at the situation at hand, what we have already accepted to have to live with is already the exaggerated state. for example: you have people in their thousands waiting for the return of JFK jr and him taking over the country or in case of the virus you have people in all seriousness deny it's existance. you can not possibly make that more absurd. sure, people actually denying to literally "look up" is an exaggaration, but at this point just by a tiny bit. if the events of the film were true, imagine how close that would actually play out in reality.
if you take a look at idiocracy in comparison, when that was made it was a hugely exaggerated portrayal of people's behaviors at that time. this is basically not even possible anymore in this day and age. when looking at speech has been reduced to a couple of slurs, incoherent mumbling and parrotting force fed slogans ("crave electrolytes") in idiocracy, that wasn't actually the case when the film was made in reality to that extend, but now that's where we actually have arrived at. how can you portray that even worse?
in further comparison when trump was in ofice, there were comedians half jokingly complaining that they are basically out of their job, because nothing they can come up with can be as absurd as actual reality at that point. it is hard ridiule what is obviously already ridiculous.
one more note on the movie itself: it would have helped if at least the dialogues would have been written more clever.
@@kennethc2466 i mean there is no ethical consumption under capitalism but its also like impossible to live in the world without capitalism at this moment in time because that is the system we're under, and like we can change it but change takes time and is very difficult and also you commented this on a youtube video on your phone or laptop or whatever so you are also part of the system you're critisising like i get what you're saying but you are also consuming under capitalism just like everyone else
@@rowandunning6877 He wasn't "criticizing the system", but rather using that as an example to present a "both sides" claim.
@@Bustermachine Doesn't satire have to make laugh? Almost to the point of tears? I suppose they didn't go far enough. Tina Fey's Sarah Palin was the last great bit of American satire that really stung.
I hated it while I was watching it. It made me feel so anxious that I couldn’t laugh at it. However, since then I can’t stop thinking about it.
Time to get a telescope😊
@@hhjhj393 life has no meaning unless you give it one. whatever you find joy in or find fulfilling is where you make your meaning. thats how I view it anyway.
This was me as well.
I totally loved it. Pitch-perfect, really. It's a spot-on social and political satire and, unfortunately, very much where we already are.
really? Look at all the fear porn the media loves. The media wouldn't ignore this. The media is hysterical about creating hared and fear. This is for people that maybe aren't paying attention? It's so off the base of reality. I loved the computer billionaire and it was enjoyable but didn't reflect our world where people wear two masks outside and force mandates when the CDC admits the vaccines don't prevent transmissibility. People are addicted to fear. The don't look up people would be the people that ignored the Hunter Biden ;laptop evidence that Joe Biden is corrupt and compromised by China. The media ignored it and called it Russian disinformation until months later when they said, whoops! It was always real! That was ignored but it doesn't cause fear. People are addicted to disaster fear. Tehy get dopamine kicks from fear and hatred. The media knows this and profits from it. Way off!
@@MicahMicahel I fear you.
@@MicahMicahel still doesn’t change facts about climate change, nobody will care what any president did or didn’t do if we’re all dead 🤷♂️
@@MicahMicahel touch grass and read a book instead of watching joe rogan all day
"Well meaning hypocrisy bothers me way less than complacent silence." Also rings true for me.
Complicit
Same. Ive gotten pretty tired of seeing folkes pick apart the actions of others over percieved hypocrisy or failings in their personal morality.
I liked the movie, even if it was as subtle as a bag of bricks to the face. My only gripes were the pop song that they took a break from the plot to play in its entirety, and the way every country outside the US is basically an afterthought. They did (spoilers) show China, Russia and India team up for their own rocket program which explodes during launch... I assumed the Bezos fellow sabotaged their efforts but the movie doesn't even entertain the idea lol
One thing I enjoyed about the movie was the fast, frantic pace it managed to keep up for an above-average runtime. You really feel how the main characters were scrambling and fighting a constant uphill battle, with the panic rising higher and higher until the scientists are literally begging and pleading to be listened to.
When it comes to climate change, I just don't see how the subtle approach is helping anything. We've tried decades of prodding people along about climate change, and the issue is ignored. This unsubtle approach is really no different from that scene from Sorkin's Newsroom interviewing the EPA administrator.
@@aarond0623 Yeah I'm inclined to agree. Capitalist society is completely incapable of solving climate change so people should be a hell of a lot louder and angrier about climate change
The idea that the Tech Billionaire and the U.S. government sabotaged the other rockets was my immediate assumption as well.
@@billabobyt
It might have made a more interesting movie to have a group of scientists in some insignificant Third - World country come up with a brilliant solution which gets ignored because of where they're from.
The Americo - centrism of Hollywood is understandable but a little vexing to non - Americans.
The pop song is fking hilarious! That's exactly what would happen. The movie was poking fun at Hollywood and the pompous delusion that they can solve big problems by putting on a concert or hosting a telethon.
I enjoyed it. I think the science and its lack of accuracy, like the rocket launches, was part of the satire. It falls inline with the general response from the government in the film. A last minute solution, poorly thought out and without input from the majority of the scientific community. I also liked the ending. It wasn't surprising, given that they told us in the first 15-minutes, that there was a 100% chance of global destruction. Specifically, the moment when they fully accept the reality that the earth is going to be destroyed, and they go shopping for good food and good wine. They came together as friends and family and treated each other kindly. It was a nice way to end things.
@@DavidNicholson101 I think that was the point? By letting them just sit there and talk depicts their defeat - one caused by humanity's negligence and greed. It's unsettling, because the treat has become too big and a the way they respond, shows an accurate presentation how some people may respond in such a doom scenario. It's a bit of existential horror that I personally enjoyed.
That’s the stage I’m at for the fossil fuel crisis. When I saw the value of untapped oil left in the ground, I knew we were doomed. In the book Ministry for the Future, one of the infographic chapters states that there is $1,500 trillion dollars left to be made by the oil industry. No oil executive, Middle East royalty, or oil nation bureaucrat is leaving that type of wealth untapped.
This movie seems like a love letter to Idiocracy. I liked it
idiocracy has some uncomfortable and I think unintentional pro eugenics themes going on, with the whole "stupid poor people outbred the smart rich people"
thats what I get going back anyway
Totally just my perspective as I watched, but I found it brilliant that the tension built towards the climax, was not the typical "how are they gonna get out of this ok?" It was "they better kill everyone!" And they did! The creators chose to take the risk, and follow thru.
Morbid, and a little dark(or "hopeless") but it was the only way the narrative of the movie worked.
This also struck a chord with me as how the main characters chose to spend their last few hours, is all id hope for myself and my family in the same situation. And the most effective way to make a simple dinner as profound as it was, was to destroy everything in the end.
So I'm in the group you're talking about, I absolutley hated the film but not for the reasons you stated. I had a number of things that really bothered me; the cruel neurodivergent coding on the billionare guy, the messy plotting, the baffling editing, but the big issue is i think it fails as satire. I expect satire to be smart, and I expect it to respect the audience. Above all I expect it to understand what it's satirizing. I'm not talking about the science stuff, that get a pass as fictiphysics, I don't think it understands why people are apathetic and ambivilant.
The movie's presents us in act one with a simple solution that everyone agrees on and is fully funded that people just choose not to follow. Climate change is a massive problem that requires a host of complex solutions and fundemental changes to society. It becomes too big to take in and when you add in how many massive social problems with complex solutions it adds up to compassion fatigue. Likewise the satire of the media is shallow, presenting them as silly people only interested in celebrity gossip. There's plenty of room to do intelligent satire of the effects of bothsidesism or the way media will stoke argument instead of discussion.
Essentially there was an opportunity to make an intelligent satire that said something, but this is shallow and also very mean spirited. I felt pandered to, and that would be alright if it could have the effect you hope, I wish it would. But considering how smug the film is and how it looks down on the people it should be trying to convince, I think if it has any effect at all it will be the opposite. It felt very much like it was presenting people who don't fight climate change the way a film like God's Not Dead presents Atheists, would that film convince you of anything?
Sorry for the essay. I do appreciate your perspective and i'm glad you had an enjoyable experience of the film, I just didn't and maybe I've read too much Pratchett and have too high an expectation for satire.
Haven't seen the movie yet, but I can relate to your critique because I've had a similar response to other satirical works. A lot of movies about societal problems tend to reduce them down to the other side being stupid or mean, when in reality we have a lot more in common with our enemies than we'd like to admit.
Let's use billionaires as an example: regardless of whether they were born into that excessive wealth or rose to it, that ridiculous amount of social power is their normal, and losing it all--and the freedom that comes with it--is horrifying to them in the same way losing our own comparatively pitiful power and freedom would be horrifying to us. In addition, billionaires don't think about the disgusting amount of harm they're doing for the same reason we don't think about the environmental damage and human rights abuses that go into our everyday consumer products: that kind of awareness is uncomfortable at best and can absolutely break you at worst, and most people would rather not be that miserable.
I'm not saying we should feel sorry for billionaires or cut them any slack, but I am saying that there's nothing uniquely inhuman about them, and we need to understand that if we genuinely want to create a society without any billionaires, or at the very least pressure the ones we have into behaving less destructively. Same goes for any type of societal villain. Hate them, fight them, and destroy them if necessary, but never for a moment forget that they are human beings.
Haven't read as much Pratchett as I'd like, either, but I think he's agree with that. Even his most nefarious characters were still, you know, *people.*
Great film. The direction was like McCay's other film Vice, quite avant-garde for a mainstream film. Although Streep's president was a Republican, I believe Hill's Secretary of State was a Democrat. I'm glad the prayer scene at the end was played straight.
actually, that's one of the movie's critiques, goverment, CEO's, ppl in power, etc are convicing people the solution and the issue it's too complex when the only complexity it's that it means that billonaires loose money. Also he wasn't really neurodivergent coded, it was just that he lacked humanity and tried to be sympathetic, and neurodivergent people can be villains too. The whole point of satires it's to disrespect and simple things down. Everyone's entlited to their own opinion but you are just using words to sound smart lol
Regarding millionaires, one piece has a fitting metaphor, theworld nobles that are so far removes and accountable to no one and literally have helmets to protect them from the air of common people. That i what makes them with few examples that actually get humbled, very very few, inhuman, because they see themselves above everyone else and not living in the same world as everyone else. They learn to be inhuman because they see most others as inhuman.
The world nobles are the worst there, i guess you could say they are still human but shown in the most obnoxious nasty and hatable way possible.
Its not that rich people are literally inhumans, but they learn to be. And often grow up learning to be. Its opersonally, i i were for self interest, they also are harmed by the toxic bubble they created to shield themselves from the world. A golden cage if you want that helps no one and starves an kills the world as side effect.
And yeaha comet is a bad metaphor for climat change, using the day after tomorrow as start and make it far better , that would work. Or absurd scifi with a technology that i used and causes that. Can work as well.
Honestly anime can be pretty good at showing that scenario, some absurdism really helps selling it. O dark absurd humor. I mean it should make people think, then pretentiou is notth right tone, its absurd dark humor.
I found the movie a bit on the optimistic side. The idea that Congress wrote and passed a massive spending bill without a conservative Democrat having a principled disagreement or concerns about something or a Republican filibustering the bill because of some psychotic conspiracy fiction they thought up or because it’s communism or just to own the libs is an idea too unrealistic for me to take seriously. Any bill Congress would have shat out the evening before the comet hit would be wholly insufficient, way too late, and probably would have gutted what little regulations, taxes, and social welfare we have left.
True, but they could only cover so much and they tried to touch on so very many things as it is.
Spoken like a true nihlist commie
yeah, case in point, people don't like this movie because they take it too seriously. Interesting you actually found it too unrealistic to actually take it seriously enough.
@@tushar19jan rofl, spoken like a true trumpian ostrich
It's the same reason why Stephen Colbert's now-legendary performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner was met with glares, disdain and printed commentary about what a poor job he did...until the video made its way onto the Internet and became a sensation. Stephen hit so close to home, he personally stung the ones in attendance there, especially President George W. Bush. This was what made him a household name. Now, compare this with the reactions to Don't Look Up, and you'll see there are quite a few similarities. This hits really close to home for a lot of media figures -- so much so that they're lashing out. And, frankly, that's providing us with some additional, unexpected entertainment.
I saw it after having just seen the trailer, and yeah I really liked it overall. I do agree it could use a bit of tightening in places but my biggest thing is I feel the people criticizing that it's too blunt and unsubtle with it satire are barking up the wrong tree. Yes it is a very blunt movie, and *that's okay* you are allowed to be very blunt and go subtext is for cowards. You don't *have* to be subtle, and here I think it helps with both the messaging and the comedy.
Bleak is good. Happy endings are ok, but sometimes a bitter end is the better end.
The running joke told through Jennifer Lawrence's character was hilarious to me. Such an old school joke structure. Loved it
What was the joke?
@@MichaelHaneline I think the joke is her obsession with the idea of a four star general charging them for free snacks at the White House.
@@MichaelHaneline Her questioning why the powerful General Themes asked for money for the free snacks
having lived it, the grad student's obsession with free food cannot be underestimated
OK, and what was the answer? Why does he did that?!
Loved how the movie (accurately enough) portrayed how the big donors own our democratically elected leaders.
Edit: well of course “loathed” is a more accurate description than “loved”. Either way, the “big donors own our leaders” bit remains accurate, unfortunately.
I watched it last night and couldn't sleep until 6 am this morning from the utter anxiety and dread. Idiocracy was more digestible because it was, at the time, in the future. Don't Look Up's satire has already happened with the sheer audacity of conservative ignorance and monstrosity.
We're f_cked.
I couldn't laugh. Well, at first, it was nervous laughter. But like, the absurdity isn't absurd. They did this. We did this already. We ARE doing this. Climate change, pandemic....this isn't absurd any more. People are still DYING in droves because of the absurdity. I lost my dad to the "absurdity".
Like.. you can't point and laugh at something and say "it's a joke".. when there are REAL WORLD examples of that thing.
To be fair, go watch Idiocracy again. It has a very strong eugenics message that is pretty gross honestly
“Well meaning hypocrisy bothers me way less, than complicit silence”👍
Well-articulated. I agree with most all points. I thought the movie was meh at first, but the more I think about it and see the real story it gets better. It mashes Deep Impact, Armageddon, and Idiocracy with a caricature spin and destroys all 3 movies. That Last supper scene was gold. "We really did have everything."
Scientific inaccuracy does tend to bother me in movies. It did not in this case. It was done to serve the purpose. That said, I think it would have done better by making the timeline longer (not too long, but a few years) and still have nothing happen.
The only real scientific inaccuracy I noticed was the third one Steve mentioned about the effects of the impact. The first two I put more in the category of technical inaccuracies or rather logical inconsistencies. The space shuttle program being completely retired as opposed to simply decommissioned is a factual error, but I feel like it was a necessary one. One in which the filmmakers knew was erroneous, but decided to fictionalize this part of reality for the sake of story telling. Similarly, the idea of launching multiple rockets that close to each other simultaneously is also ludicrous, but the film actually kind of lampshades and satirizes that by showing one crashing into another (an example of exactly the kind of catastrophic disaster that might result in such a scenario), but also points out both the desperate nature of the mission and the incompetence of those organizing it (consistent with the film's tone and message). So, I'm willing to look past those type of inaccuracies for the sake of the story. A similar argument could be made for how Jonah Hill's character survives near the end, when he emerges into complete devastation. In reality, he would have been killed, but the comedy works better if he survives as the last man on Earth trying to tiktok a non-existent audience.
The timeline is actually quite realistic. We've had several comets pass by near Earth that we only knew of several months prior.
Howard the Duck is good, actually--not great, mind you, but entertaining and creative, at least, and the jokes land.
Best I can figure about the reaction to Don't Look Up is that some people essentially blamed it for making them feel uncomfortable and other people are angry that it didn't effectively "solve" climate change according to their sensibilities.
It rips the media industry that is more interested in selling than informing....and then make anyone that questions out to be some wack-o.
I saw the scientific inaccuracies as an intential parody of political grand standing. Did not even mention the ridiculous space ark at the end, which seemed to me to be a parody of Elon's ridiculous plans for colonizing Mars or even hyperloop. I was reminded a lot of dr. Strangelove.
As someone who loves it when science is gotten right in movies, I laughed really hard at “these are the [objections] I respect the least.
Great video, Steve. :)
I felt the movie just had a major theme confusion problem. Was it meant to be a serious allegory? A goofball comedy? A dark satire? It didn't seem like it could decide, and it was way too long. It was ok I guess.
This is a great take, but I am also so impressed with your ability to communicate with such flow. No ums, no cuts. That is impressive.
its a respectable skill but I have to wonder what other creators/presenters you are watching because its one of the most basic ways to improve your public speaking and pretty much everyone in said roles should be the same way.
I loved it. It made fun of everyone and was clearly satire from the first scenes. Seems more like a political review bombing since the right and corporate media felt attacked
I've also seen attacks online from liberals who happen to hate David Sirota, the speechwriter for Bernie who gets a story credit.
The right? I saw it all as both sides feeling attacked. They were both certainly made fun of. Sometimes you couldn’t even tell what side was supposed to be what. But I think that was the point: there’s actually very little difference between right and left politics. They’re politics.
@@aarond0623 you know you’re in a cult when you hate someone simply for who they worked for. That’s hilarious.
@@kaleip7652 theres no left party in America, and there is extreme differences. watching any philosophy tube video for instance will make it pretty clear just how fundamentally different we are in our worldviews and goals
@@MistaZULE thats not a cult, and thats a wierd standard to have. for instance I would hate anyone who worked closely with Donald, working for a fascist is something I think is worth holding against people. bernie isn't a fascist obviously far from it but just pointing out that doesn't not seem to be a useful or fair standard.
Thanks for this take. I have some friends that were pointing out the hypocrisy argument on the basis that the filmmakers were white. I'm sympathetic to the idea that colonialism created this mess, and it absolutely did, but as you said, that's no reason not to have the conversation. What better use of the privilege white beneficiaries of colonialism and capitalism have than to take down the powers that gave them that privilege?
I saw it on the 10th at Coolidge Corner.
The thesis of the movie comes about halfway through the film, when things look to be going alright, and then swiftly turn around, right in front of the eyes of the public. The point is that the rich and powerful don't even need to hide their brazeness for so many of us to go along with it. They're not even smart enough to make grand conspiracies. They just operate as if this is the only system that could ever work.
Mark Rylance is brilliant as the stand in for the Gates and Zuckerbergs of the world and the performances across the board are spot on.
If I had a criticism, it's that the movie trains its sights pretty squarely on America, when I subscribe to the notion of Ned Beatty's speech in Network, that there are no more nations, only corporations. The problems we face when it comes to the pandemic and climate extinction are the result of the protection of private capitalist class property at all costs, and maintaining class and social hierarchy. Just because the US is uniquely committed to that ideal, doesn't mean it's not a problem that transcends borders.
Remember: the best case scenario is that we have 8 years to halve carbon output in order to avert extinction. Essentially, we have that much time to return us to 1970 emission levels while serving a population of 8 billion people. It's possible, because the top billion polluters contribute more than half of all emissions. But it would require a complete restructuring of society not seen on this scale in centuries.
Right now, we're at the part of the movie where Dr. Mindy gets out of his car to look at the comet. The failed mission by the Asian countries in the film represents the 2030 IPCC deadline and the dinner table scene is what the 2030s (and 2040s if we're lucky) will look like if we don't meet that deadline.
I thought this article also did a good job of saying how critics missed the point, either through their ignorance or bad faith: www.currentaffairs.org/2021/12/critics-of-dont-look-up-are-missing-the-entire-point
"I have some friends that were pointing out the hypocrisy argument on the basis that the filmmakers were white"
your friends are idiots
"Remember: the best case scenario is that we have 8 years to halve carbon output in order to avert extinction"
human extinction? you're just making shit up now
That last criticism reminded me of a critique I read for a book in a series of books about solving mysteries in the far distant future. The distant future setting is kinda arbitrarily chosen just to give the characters more history to dig into and the world they live in and their characterizations are pretty similar to our own in service of making the books easy reads.
This critic lampoon a particular book because it portrayed a character as being an abuser, misogynist and criminal. Her one and only critique was that the writer didn't choose to portray some star trek like future where such things simply don't happen.
She doesn't care about the kidnappings, the assassinations, the terroristic bombings, a global conspiracy that leaves a whole planet in danger of being wiped out because raising the alarm would have threatened a few powerful people's fortunes. She didn't care about the wars or the bubbling conflict with the only other aliens in the universe.
All she cared about was the fact that in this one way alone humans could still be assholes, and that somehow made the book fundamentally bad in her mind.
So many people take sci fi shows to be factual and it bugs me to no end.
I’m not a Christian in particular but the other day this atheist went off about how “she was so excited to meet aliens just so they could destroy Christian beliefs” like what if the aliens we meet are like the Covenant, hyper religious and not like the Vulcan the way she believes?
wait... "a global conspiracy that leaves a whole planet in danger of being wiped out because raising the alarm would have threatened a few powerful people's fortunes"? Exxon is that you?
@@williamhanna9718 atheists are starting to get on my nerves. *those* atheists have the same energy as *those* Christians. I'm agnostic because we literally won't know until death and it seems silly to spend life arguing about it.
I also just think it's incredibly human to think everything is even within our comprehension. Human ego is wild lol
Was that the Expanse Series? Nemesis Games to be more accurate?
I haven't watched the movie. I saw a preview for it come up when I opened Netflix, and just from the preview, I knew it wasn't for me.
I'm the kind of person who should've liked the movie. I lean left. But the thing about good satire is, it has to be subtle and measured to be good. From the preview I saw, it has all the subtlety of an SNL skit. It's like someone poking you in the ribs every few seconds, "You get it? You get it? Aren't I clever?"
As for its satire on prioritizing profits, that is very applicable. Look at climate change and the oil industry. One of the biggest arguments against doing anything is profits. Fighting man's effect on the climate will cost too much. Reducing our dependence on oil, costs too much. They would rather optimize profits now sucking as much oil as they can out of the earth without considering that it will run out one day. Then, everyone will be f@cked as we didn't properly prepare for that day. Who cares? That is 75 to 100 years away (from the numbers I read). That isn't our problem.
I liked the movie. I saw it as a parody of Hollywood and elites. Their superficiality and ignorance when dealing with real problems. The fact that it was so lost on Hollywood that they thought they were making a clever and meaningful allegory in the form of a movie. The one critique I have was the ending where a spaceship lasted 20k years? Lol. That was the most farfetched thing ever. But I liked the other ending where Jennifer Lawerence and her boyfriend had dinner with Leo DiCaprio's family and spent their last moments reminiscing and praying. That as sweet and what my family would probably be doing if the world was ending.
I loved it, it was panned by the media in the UK, but I was surprised by how on the nose it was about the possible US government, media, public reactions to crisis and catastrophes. I just wonder if the critics have taken a look at the world and how we've handled climate change or the pandemic so far. Don't look up was good.
I liked it...........and Honestly it's frighteningly Accurate!!
I hate the hypocrisy argument, I really feel like it comes from people who care more about feeling morally superior than they do about actually solving the issues that they claim to care so much about. You have a star studded movie that is number one on Netflix that is telling the world to pay attention to climate change and you find a way to be mad still. hypocrisy is not really an argument, just because someone is a hypocrite doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. Second these actors are using their platform to bring attention to an important issue, especially Leonardo DiCaprio climate change is basically all that he talks about. These folks are using capitalism and their fame to advocate for climate change legislation and care. What else do you want like? For them to be monks?
I absolutely agree with your take. I really enjoyed this movie, despite feeling emotionally wrecked at the end. It was powerful and impactful, and I was surprised throughout how accurately they depicted the world (not necessarily the science, but like the decisions the president makes, the way the memes spread, the tiktok trends etc) it felt refreshingly real
The thing that I love about your videos and your commentary is that it is nuanced. You rarely stray into the "it's all black or white, either / or" mentality, and I appreciate that very much. We seem, as a society, as a culture, and as individuals, to immediately move into the "us vs. them" mentality. I realize that that instinct is exactly that... an instinct, along with just being baked into our physiologies, what with how our brains are structured, and how our minds work, etc. But it takes a willingness and an ability to break beyond that inborn desire to label everything as "good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, us vs. them" mentality.
I often agree with many of your points of view, in many of your videos, though there are a number that I also disagree with. But it's your thoughtfulness that I admire a lot. I appreciate what you do, Steve. Thank you.
This movie made critics and the media mad because it talks about them. That’s the hilarious part.
I thought this movie was so much fun! It was funny and oddly heart warming.
Perfect post credit scene 👌! These seniors thinking they can beat death- so delusional
I think because it attacks everyone in a very smug way it pissed a bunch of people off.
Movies rely on consequences. If the hero does the Thing...the threat is just...solved.
Moviegoers (hence the whole biz model), it seems, rely on the problem ALWAYS being solved. Early Hollywood and TV had LAWS forbidding them from ever letting the bad guys win.
"The ending wasn't...happy. The consequences arrived." (sniff)
Sigh.
ETA: Sequels? Whole franchises? Problem WAS solved. But threat...is bigger...is over there!...didn't die QUITE all the way to dead-dead...
As long as we get a cookie we're acclimatized to being re-scared for the sequel. To, I guess, threat to future world cookie supply.
I loved the movie actually, even more so after hearing some of the criticisms. They are the true "After credits scenes"!
I watched "blindly" without any idea what sort of movie I was going to watch. I expected a drama/sci-fi like Deep Impact and Armageddon, and definitely wasn't expecting a comedy. Took a while to catch on, with multiple instances of "Well, that's not very realistic.. ffs!!" but once I realised, I enjoyed it much more.. 10/10, as long as you know it's a comedy.
Terrific analysis Mr. Shives. You're absolutely right when it comes to the fact that nobody is safe in the world of capitalism, and while rehabilitations must be made to better society from what it is now, celebrities with a platform can protest the system's flaws as long as their actions follow their words, which sadly doesn't amount to much when it comes from hypocritical celebrities. With that being said, Don't Look Up is one of the best films Adam McKay has delivered in years, and redeems him after Vice, an abysmal and condescending piece of cinema that failed on its satire more than it delivered. It's also commendable that Don't Look Up is one of the numerous original movies to be released in 2021, as Hollywood and Netflix do every year. Original cinema continues to persist despite franchise ips; that's fact, not opinion.
Scientific inaccuracies be damned, because with the exception of movies projecting for scientific accuracy or based on real events correlating with science, other movies work by functioning with the logic they've built for their own universe. Armchair scientific nerds with too much time on their hands overanalyze movies like Don't Look Up, so based on the films' events the timeline of the rockets progress the goal of the story and messages.
While Adam McKay has the tendency to buy into his own hype and write like a college student who believes he's smarter than society because he watches RUclips, the satire delivered more here than it tumbled. Don't Look Up isn't completely hopeless, nor is it completely reliant on insincere irony. The final scenes at the dinner table with Randall's family and colleagues, after a dire battle against misinformation and Randall refusing to embark on the sleeper ships that leave Earth, are emotionally riveting. These scenes display the type of nuance that McKay is capable of when he's not sniffing the supposed majesty of his satire. Don't Look Up, for its worth and shortcomings, is a satire worthy of our times and has been rightfully endorsed by critic organizations like the American Film Institute and National Board of Review.
Rotten Tomatoes is .. rotten... especially the garbage that they promote from major studios.. and they edit the fan reviews.. to limit the impact of the fans.. overall.. for just about any film.. Rotten Tomatoes is WORTHLESS.. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Something I thought about:
How many preachy ass, Christian-fundamentalist loving, conservative-victimhood movies have been made over the years? Like yeah, God's Not Dead managed to break more into the 'mainstream' and was a thing for a couple years with a couple of follow-up films, but...aside of that, how many actually "made it"? Not many. They are the picturebook definition of an entertainment product 'preaching to the choir'. These films are blatant and obvious with their own message of "poor, downtrodden Christians" being victimized in a world that "hates them", and it's just a giant pity party, but also a pity party that only exists to make conservative WASPs justify their own views about the world.
Then one mildly Left-leaning movie breaks into the mainstream and everyone loses their minds. All it really says is, "Hey, humanity has big problems, and following corrupt, rich leaders who have no actual goals but their own self-preservation in store, are leading all of us into destruction. We should do something better before it is too late."
A lot of good points. This also kinda sums up why I don’t wanna see the movie. I’m glad it got made, but after all the people who pushed back against heath advice during the pandemic, I think it’d be depressing to watch a 2 and a half hour movie showing the same thing. Like I said, I’m glad it was made, but I also just don’t wanna see it right now
I'm so disappointed in people missing the point of this movie.....you are LITERALLY showing the movie to be more documentary than fiction. Missing the forest for the trees. #PleaseFinishUsComet 😔
Seems like there are a vocal few that hated it. I loved it, as did everyone I've talked to. A lot of the comedy is "cringe comedy" as in, it's supposed to be in your face and making you cringe because you know that's exactly what's happening in the real world. I suppose if you either don't have the awareness to see what's happening in the real world, or you just don't like "cringe comedy", you wouldn't like the movie.
That movie criticized our Glorious Corporations, Great Tech Capitalists, who are glorious men and father figures to all, and our wonderful media! How dare they do that!
My biggest problem with _Don't Look Up_ is precisely that the apocalypse it depicts happens nigh-instantly, which allows us to convince ourselves that if we miss the deadline for averting a catastrophe, we'll suffer from the knowledge of what we've done for about two days and then it'll all be over. But climate change and the COVID pandemic are going to be a long, miserable, drawn-out period of suffering where we'll have years and years to agonize over our failures of leadership.
It obviously sucks for the people in _Don't Look Up_ that the planet and the human race are instantly annihilated, but it almost indulges them in giving them one singular moment of judgment instead of the long, drawn-out horror-fest battle for survival we're going to experience. It feels like a weird Christian rapture scenario in that regard.
I agree with you on all points, but the bleakness makes it so I don't want to watch the movie. I'm aware of how grim things are, I'm not looking to be reminded of it when I indulge in entertainment. That's a me problem though, and if people find value in the film that's great. I'd just rather spend 2 1/4 hours doing something else.
I think the six months thing was the point and actually done intentionally. The moment they said they only had six months I knew they were most likely fucked no matter what they did. But that wouldn’t stop humanity from panicking and giving it their best shot to stop it. But exactly the opposite happened in the movie. It’s an exaggerated metaphor of how we ignore the massive problems that effect the entire globe, such as climate change, on the time scale of years because if something threatening isn’t happening soon humanity naturally feels apathetic towards it. That’s just how our brains evolved. The immediate dangers such as predators always took precedence because that was what killed us, so we evolved to only focus on immediate dangers instead of long term ones. Modern society is a relatively recent thing so the hardware that is our brains hasn’t had time to catch up with this new development. This movie is basically that same apathetic response to long term threats dialed up to 11, along with the politicization and trivialization of science that we have done out of corruption and a desire to ignore these kind of issues. It is also a metaphor of how even for shorter term threats we are starting to ignore them or procrastinate on taking action, which is basically what happened with Covid.
TLDR: This movie is an exaggeration of our reactions to long term threats such as Climate Change in the past few decades and the horrible political transformation our society has undergone in recent years, that has prevented us from appropriately responding to even immediate threats such as Covid.
I haven't watched the movie and don't plan to, but if I did, I'd probably be in the "hopeless" camp. Like, I already fully understand that humanity is facing multiple, slow-moving, existential threats. It seems really bad and hopeless to me in real life, because I have so little power to change anything and the people that DO have that power most certainly won't do what needs to be done. I don't really have a desire to see a movie that highlights that. I get it already. I'm depressed enough as it is. No jokes about it are going to make reality seem less bleak to me.
I dunno about anyone else, but my problem with it was that it wasn't funny. As a satire, it was a cut and paste job, only with a comet instead of climate change/covid. There was nothing in the movie that late night comedians hadn't brought up over the last 10 years.
The Dr Who story Inferno (1970) destroyed the entire world but the story was set on a parallel Earth since otherwise the show would have to end.
An excellent conception but not executed as well as it might have been.
I love how society is so bad in this movie that I found myself rooting for the committee to destroy everyone.
Because it's a leftist movie that makes fun of both conservatives and liberals, which is like 80% of the U.S.
Sorry, but the Rise of Skywalker is a horrible movie, and not because it "ruined Star Wars," it would have been horrible as a stand alone story too.
A friend of mine accurately described this movie as “Idiocracy Part 2”.
It's a masterful and ominous satire of our pitiful, grotesque reality, of us. This is the problem with the movie.
Thanks for posting this Steve.
I am way too anxious to watch a movie about us failing to stop a disaster.. the trailer alone had me running to the nearest corner with my blankie
Another scientific inaccuracy: A comet of this size on an impact course would be detected *far* earlier than 6 months before impact even by amateur astronomers, let alone professionals. At 6 months out, it would probably be visible with the naked eye.
Also also: The "let's monetize the comet!"-plan by the Steve Jobs/Elon Musk parody (who was the best part of the movie, imho) was inherently flawed, because it doesn't matter if the earth is impacted by one big object or several smaller ones - the energy imparted is the same. Tho this might have been deliberate.
We watch startling little of the sky actually
I was wondering the same thing on that last point. I think it was partially meant to be capitalist hubris, but maybe based on a plausible principle? Several smaller comets of the same volume/mass would have greater surface area to evaporate in space and/or burn off in the atmosphere. There must be some way that the BEADS plan could work, even if it means breaking the comet up into more pieces, farther from Earth.
Please correct me when I'm wrong, I'm not an astrophysicist.
To spot a comet someone needs to look in its direction, right? It's a chance discovery in the movie and I took it this is how it's likely to happen in real live. It could have been discovered earlier but no one did because no one looked?
A comet itself is invisible, we see its tail, right? And for it to have a tail it needs to be close enough to a sun? So it could travel through empty space without us noticing for a while.
So, quick question.. isnt ablation from atmosphere burn affected by surface area vs mass?
I was just thinking if you did reduce it enough more would burn up in orbit, but my science background sucks.
Of course you'd also maybe put tons of heavy metals in the atmosphere and potentially put enough shit in orbit to create a kepler cascade.
None of this adresses the point of the movie of course, just goofing around.
Both of these inaccuracies can be interpret as deliberate if you think about it, it's the type of movie where we can only guess (but they probably are inaccuracies).
I'll have to disagree with you about "Dead Poets Society".
It was a funny movie. i liked it for the most part. lots of plot holes though. and lots of stupid moments but it portrays the possibility that those moments might actually be something that could happen. just look at trump and how he became president and his entire 4 year term. just look at our government as a whole dems and reps. lol
So, this is the movie version of that Simpsons episode?
Neat! I love that episode!
Nice Job Steve. I think people don't like the movie because it depicts the country very well.
I was pleased that you mentioned Dr. Strangelove. It came to mind several times as you were discussing the themes and plot points of Don’t Look Up. It is probably my favorite dark comedy, and (*spoilers*) the world gets destroyed in that one, too.
When holding a mirror up to reality no one will thank you for spending time to clean and polish it first.
How we currently treat whistleblowers is a massive problem, nothing will improve until we protect them.
I would argue the movie is minimally satirical, and mostly farcical (farce).
My take on the movie's reception (as someone who never watched it):
A lot of people don't want to look up.
I suspect a lot of people who disliked this movie, did so because they recognized themselves.
"It's too bleak!" ... have these people ever watched Dr. Strangelove?
I have no idea. I loved it, and agree with everything you said.
I have no problem with this movie.... I thought it had very accurate satire.
I find it funny that people are saying that the satire is “scattershot”. When in reality the satire is quite aimed directly at the establishment
Ofcourse right has problem with this movie! It critises them!
It was boring, long and the ending was obvious and more like a skit on SNL
If only those who are destroyed by the current system are allowed to criticise it; then we're truly doomed