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March 29, 2024, 07:48:18 AM

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Don't Look Up (2021) Netflix

Started by Lewman, December 26, 2021, 12:27:05 AM

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falafel

Which is to say, I just finished watching this and was surprised by how much it knocked me for six. I don't really care how sophomoric or even childish it might seem but even though it didn't tell me anything I didnt already know, and it is basically a satire drawn in crayon, about halfway through I stopped laughing and just felt a deep, dark horror in the pit of my stomach. If climate change is real, and all humans are totally flawed and imperfect, then who can expect a single creative endeavour to tick all the boxes for what they expect the PR for climate change to be?
I can't really assess this the way I would another film, whether it was by Spielberg or Truffaut. It's an imperfect effort, and we need much, much more of that. I mean, to put on my wanker's hat, yes, the Ariana Grande song is a pretty sound analogy for what this film is doing, consciously, quite possibly. A bunch of people, very famous people, who can only do what they do and know how to get some funds raised, trying to sound the alarm, while most of the world stumbles on.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Whatever else I could say about it, I thought DiCaprio's "if we can't even agree that this is a bad thing..." rant was very effective. It almost seemed like him breaking character and addressing the audience directly.

phes

Quote from: Mister Six on January 12, 2022, 03:42:27 AMSillier of me to not figure out what had happened!

But yeah, this is why Don't Look Up seems so ultimately insipid and hypocritical to me. When Ariana Grande's character turns the message into a spectacle and people consume the spectacle as though it's doing something about the message - isn't that exactly what's going on with the film itself? You get your two hours of entertainment in the company of some famous people, you feel angry and thrilled and have fun, and then... what?

The film says that if we can shake the denial from conservatives and the deplorables, that if enough people open their eyes, a solution to the disaster is within our grasp. It's not within our grasp. Two thirds of Americans already believe CC is an emergency and liberal belief this is about enlightenment, political will and finance, and about what a transition from fossil fuels to renewables really means for us, is as powerful a denial as conservative denial about the phenomenon itself. I found it infuriating that it focused almost entirely on the message and ignored what now, because that represents an equally disasterous portion of denial 

Catalogue Trousers

This is basically a remake of Stark - the novel, isn't it? (Not the ridiculously optimistic telly version.)

A generation later and nothing's improved. So much for the power of blockbuster satire, eh, Elton?

Icehaven

This was alright, and I know everyone keeps saying how good Mark Rylance was but he just reminded me of



for some reason. Think it's the teeth.

dissolute ocelot

The script's all over the place but most of performances in this are crap, admittedly having nothing to work with. Dicaprio is just doing a bad copy of Johnny Galecki in Big Bang Theory, except Galecki is evidently a better actor. Miscast, maybe. Jennifer Lawrence is doing a standard Hollywood "playing ugly" thing with perfect hair and make-up but a couple of fake piercings, and barely seemed to have any personality. Compare Meryl Streep's performance here with The Devil Wears Prada where she's a monster who also manages to be an inspirational boss and (briefly) a real human being. Rylance is entertaining but doesn't have the charisma of Jobs or Musk. Blanchett's make up artist deserves an award but again the character is flat and boring, maybe intentionally so. Tyler Perry is even duller than usual and Jonah Hill just kind of whines.

The Big Short managed to give its anti-heroes more personality and more sense that they were real human beings with life stories. Even if you're doing a satire you have to have an interest in people, their unique characteristics and foibles and inner lives. Even in satire, that's where a lot of the comedy comes from. The best Black Mirrors do that, South Park can have more depths than this, even Dr Strangelove has more humanity in its characters (helped by a cast and director who put real effort in). Shit like "Oh by the way this character has a wife" was presumably intended as zany storytelling but really didn't help dispel the generally half-assed quality of the writing and direction. And the fact that it's not funny. Did anyone think it's funny? That doesn't seem to be part of anybody's defence of the film.

Yeah, it wasn't funny at all, and I found it pretty ineffectual as a satire, far too flimsy and toothless, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, I sat through the whole thing, and it was alright! I was very hungover which might have helped, but I was expecting it to be an absolute car crash from some of the reactions I've seen on the net. It was just bland, inoffensive nothingness.
It's strange that it's become such a big talking point when it's really not worth seeing or talking about at all.

EOLAN

Been a while since I watched but main reason I liked it was cos it was funny. There was plenty of jokes thrown out and was only a medium success rate but was OK for me. Rylance and the CSI guy gouging a few dollars from everyone were particularly good.

Like it but not over the top about it. Am enjoying the extreme negative reaction to it getting a couple of Oscar noms.

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: EOLAN on February 09, 2022, 05:10:28 PMAm enjoying the extreme negative reaction to it getting a couple of Oscar noms.
Peter Bradshaw gave it a bad review and got upset when Guardian readers criticised him. The AV Club hated it too. So it's brought some joy.

Glebe

Watched this last night, thought it was decent enough on the whole, but do feel it could have been a bit funnier and more involving. Bob Monkhouse quote was a surprise.

neveragain


Glebe


neveragain

Well... they attribute it to someone other than Bob and I'd prefer to think that he came up with it. I could be wrong.