Don’t Look Up – the movie - some thoughts
Dec 28, 2021
Don’t Look Up – the movie
SPOILER ALERT!
On the second Christmas Day I stumbled across the movie Don’t Look Up on Netflix, Leonardo DiCaprio looked familiar, as did Meryl Streep, but still I wasn’t quite sure what to expect; driven by the attraction to the stars, I watched the movie.
And I can tell you, it’s worth it!
Ever since Netflix started to produce and stream movies, I am surprised about the high standards they reach. You find pearls when you look out.
As a former broadcaster executive, I remember the times when we as inhouse producers co-created the movies in collaboration with the film production company. Regular meetings were held between the creative producer and us, the money keepers and givers. Back in the days the powerful broadcaster always had the last say in creative decisions. Netflix, au contraire, gives a “creative all clear” the moment they sign the contract, the producers of the movie can play, the production company has 100% final creative say.
And boy, you can tell!
No doubt, the acting is brilliant! Just brilliant. And the story? Having a closer look at the title Don’t Look Up:
In our modern world of existing, do we look up? Do we see what’s coming? Do we listen when someone wants to warn us about something, in this case even the end of the world? Do we listen to science?
My son keeps telling me not to look down on my phone whilst navigating as pedestrian the traffic and my fellow humans, walking on the street, but rather looking up and see what’s in front of me. I was strongly reminded of his advice whilst watching the storyline evolve. Do we look up and recognise what needs seeing and then do what needs doing?
Watching my favorited Christmas movies, all five “Die Hard” films again over the holidays I was used to the “Armageddon” approach to movies, for sure there will be a Bruce Willis saving the world in the end, but not with Don’t Look Up.
The storytelling unexpectedly does not end with the otherwise obvious saving of the world but stating the devastation, the consequences if we don’t listen.
The good old story writing trick to craft your story backwards, the creatives of Don’t Look Up clearly had the negation of the expected in mind, applying all satire tools, to drive the story so over the top that you indeed, and hopefully in the end do look up, and wake up at the same time, - at least you’d wish mankind would do.
I was very impressed with this utterly consequent going against mainstream choice of story arc,
which poses the question: What is a real happy ending? Spending thousands of years frozen in a BB (Branson&Bezos) like spaceship speeding through the Universe only to be eaten alive by a reptile resembling a Spinosaurus (meaning "spine lizard")?
That might be just a coincidence, but all people of authority in this movie, let it be politics or media, do not have a spine at all, which morphs into the recurrent theme. The female president (Meryl Streep) chooses not to take notice of news about the world’s imminent destruction because she’s afraid it will damage her election prospects. The talk show hosts choose entertainment and superficial chat over hard scientific facts and their obvious mankind extinguishing consequences because the ratings might drop, and the show much go on.
The director Adam McKay incorporates subtle moments of disruption in using crash zooms (without the zoom inbetween) when the scene in the oval office gradually grows in unease, when the most powerful woman in the world, the US president, concludes to the threat of the meteorite crashing on earth to “assess and sit tight”. I haven’t seen these "crash zooms" for a long time, cutting from wide angles to details completely unrelated to the story, this method obviously creates discomfort watching, doubling the story emotion effect of unease. And it works!
The irony keeps dripping in this biting society satire till the very last scene when the “Chief of Staff” survives the apocalypse crawling out of world’s end debris, as the very last man standing on earth, clearly without any staff left.
Don’t Look Up emphasising the little moments, leaving space for the human moments between family and friends, this movie is indeed a heart-warming story. Facing the world destruction people find together in friendship, love and faith in God.
And no, sorry: Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo di Caprio) is not saving the world in the classic hero way but leaves us with a taste of hope.
As you can tell I’m not sharing a lot of story details with you because I’d rather invite you to watch Don’t Look Up – the movie and let me know what you think, if these exaggeration of events and emotions are needed to see the ultimate truth, the way every good satire works.
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