The Mosley Review: Don’t Look Up
What if you took a plot point from Armageddon and then mixed in the best dark comedy of the real world? Well, you have this huge satirical mirror of a film. There are some dark comedies that hit so true to home that it is almost shocking and not funny. This film nailed the superficial nature of how the world would react if there was a comet heading towards earth. I think it was almost 10 years ago or something like this had happened and it obviously missed us, but for a time there was some real fear. I loved that this film captured that fact of real danger and yet everyone is oblivious. This film was at times a brilliant social commentary on how quickly society is to not believe in something even if the facts are there. Conspiracy, lack of trust and terrible leadership is all on display here and you can draw the simple comparisons to modern day politics and theorists in the world. I honestly had a good time laughing at how true alot of the story seemed even if its a comedy.
Jennifer Lawrence was excellent as Kate Dibiasky and she delivers alot of the more real reactions to the impending doom. She delivers some amazing levels of sarcasm and nihilism in many great scenes and I especially enjoyed seeing her character except the inevitable. Leonardo Dicaprio delivers a growing anxiety attack of a performance as Dr. Randall Mindy. He is determined to prove the science, but gets sucked up into the high life of celebrity. The friendship between him and Kate was great and I loved when he finally snaps. Rob Morgan was great as the straight man Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe, head of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The 3 of them together made a fantastic team and I loved the chemistry between all of them. Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry were excellent as the stereotypical talk show hosts Brie Evantee and Jack Bremmer. They both come off as the "Ryan and Kelly" of this film, but Janie represents that completely overqualified person to be doing such a job. Meryl Streep was excellent as President Janie Orlean. She was the perfect example of a completely detached bureaucrat whose vanity mirror's our own former real life President. Jonah Hill was despicable and brilliant as her son and Chief of Staff Jason Orlean. He was trying to make everything so "relatable" to the current generation, but comes off as a seriously drugged out buffoon and I loved it. Timothee Chalamet was good in the film as Yule and you can tell he was just there to have fun. His character does touch on the religious side of things for a bit. Ron Perlman can steal a film if he choices to and he almost did as the irreverent, hilarious and surly character Colonel Benedict Drask. Mark Rylance was great as the tech CEO Sir Peter Isherwell. He comes off to me as the less humane and very disturbed version of the James Halliday from Ready Player One. I liked that he highlighted the rich priorities of monetary gain over human life.
The score by Nicholas Britell was excellent, fun and heart breaking as well. It does follow the standard sound of inspirational and epic in the right moments, but quickly pulls back to have fun with its comedic cues. In the pantheon of dark comedies, this was a fun satire that does hit so close to home. It was hilarious, scary and sometimes a great mirror to our society and what superficial crap we shouldn't care about. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!
