On December 24 it finally came out on Netflix, after being released in theaters earlier this month, Don’t look up, film of the “disaster movie” genre with protagonists Leonardo Dicaprio e Jennifer Lawrence along with a super cast of big Hollywood stars, from Meryl Streep a Cate Blanchett, gives Timothée Chalamet a Jonah Hill and many others.
In the weeks and months leading up to its release, Don’t look up has been talked about a lot: for its story – two scientists try to warn the world of the imminent impact of a comet capable of exterminating the Earth – for its incredible cast and for a series of anecdotes from the set (like the one on Meryl Streep initially offended because her colleagues called her “goat”, which means goat but which stands for “greatest of all time”; or like the one about Lawrence who wanted to smoke a joint to identify with his character).
For these reasons the hype – or the wait – for Don’t Look Up it was at the highest levels. Now, after having seen it, we offer you our review of the film, which will also try to answer the question “but in the end was it really the masterpiece that everyone expected to see?”.
Don’t look up, la trama del film
It can be said that in a sense inside Don’t look up there are several small films. The first begins with PhD student in astronomy Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence) who accidentally discovers a comet, shows it to her professor Randall Mindy (Di Caprio) who realizes that the asteroid is destined to crash into Earth within six months, with lethal consequences for all living beings.
The two get the attention of Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), head of the planetary defense agency, and NASA, but when they are received at the White House, President Janie Orlean (Streep) and her son-spokesperson Jason (Hill ) pay no attention to them because they are more worried about the midterm elections than about an impending disaster.
And here begins the second film, with the scientists engaged in a media tour to convince the public: to tell the truth, the career of prof. Mindy has a decent personal twist, while Dibiasky’s does not go beyond memes in which she is teased for her tantrum during an afternoon show.
The third film will begin when, overwhelmed by a scandal, President Orlean will call the two to finally set up a mission to save the Earth (and face), but we stop here in the summary of the film and invite you to watch the official trailer of the film published on YouTube by Netflix Italy.
Don’t look up, the possible meanings of the film
There are several theories and metaphorical-allegorical interpretations of this film in which scientists warn humanity of a dangerous impending disaster but are essentially snubbed or underestimated by politics and people in general.
The journalist Fabrizio Rondolino, for example, spoke of Don’t look up as the “most accurate scientific documentary on the pandemic”, to underline how the voice of science has been, in the last two years, too thickly covered by that of politics and common sentiment.
The most popular theory for interpreting this film, taken up among others by Entertainment Weekly, is that according to which the astronomical disaster told by Adam McKay (director of this film, as well as of the TV series Succession) is a metaphor for the global debate on climate change and its consequences for our planet.
Yes, in short, the asteroid would represent the dramatic climate changes taking place, and the indifference of reactions to the warnings of scientists would be the one that everyone, more or less, has been proving in recent years.
Be that as it may, it is undeniable that Don’t look up reflects a rather widespread attitude in today’s society, so affected by dramatic warnings and threats that it no longer pays attention to it, cultivating an illusory hope that somehow everything will work out, or that in any case the disaster will affect those who come after us. In that sense, the film really managed to hit the mark.
What did not fully convince us of the film
Dove Don’t look up he did not completely convince us, however, it is in his ability to tell a story while keeping the super cast in balance. In practice, if we can afford a criticism, it is as if McKay had not managed to keep all the cards in the deck in his hand, ending up losing some pieces or making little use of some aces.
Without considering that, for example, still in the promotion phase of the film, among the names there was also Matthew Perry, the Chandler of Friends Whose scenes were then cut, the impression is that the director-writer went too far in bringing together too many stars without having enough meaningful lines for everyone. And so, for a Jonah Hill who manages to carve out his space, there are a Chalamet and a Blanchett who seem “sacrificed”, while Ariana Grande and her boyfriend (in the movie) Kid Cudi seem to be stuck in the plot just to hook even a younger audience.
Similarly, Mark Rylance, as Zuckerberg-like CEO of BASH, plays his role perfectly, but Rob Morgan appears a little too sacrificed in the role of Professor Oglethorpe.
In short, Don’t look up it kind of leaves the impression that a more incisive film could have been made, if we had focused more on the story and less on the cast. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that the final result is still of excellent workmanship, even if, probably, not the best possible.
Rating: 8
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