Cert: 15 | ★★★★✩

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Timothee Chalamet, Jonah Hill and Meryl Streep all star in this gloriously bonkers satire from The Big Short writer-director Adam McKay in collaboration with David Sirota. Don’t Look Up tells the story of two astronomers’ struggle to convince humanity that a giant comet is heading for Earth.
First scheduled to be distributed by Paramount, the film was picked up by Netflix in early 2020. One pandemic, a change of administration and an attempted insurrection later, Don’t Look Up’s narrative became even more prescient than its makers had bargained for.
When Kate Dibiasky (a hilariously becoiffed Lawrence) discovers a planet-killing object hurtling towards Earth, the astronomy PhD candidate informs her professor, Dr Randall Mindy (DiCaprio), who in turn alerts the White House. After a brief meeting with president Orleon (Streep in full unhinged Trumpian mode) and her son Jason (Hill), Kate and the professor are unceremoniously informed that no action will be taken despite the object being a mere six months away from killing everyone on the planet.
Ignored by the press and derided by social media, Kate goes rogue in the hope of forcing the president to act. Meanwhile, billionaire Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance) has found a way to profit from the approaching object and has convinced the president to stand by his plan.
Although the film isn’t explicitly about the pandemic — its makers have repeatedly referred to it as being a climate change movie — there are some obvious parallels here to be drawn with the current struggle against misinformation on social media from anti-vaxxers and Covid deniers.
Granted, many will accuse Don’t Look Up of lacking the subtlety of McKay’s earlier movies, but there is something refreshingly honest about the film that undeniably lends itself to the silliness of its narrative. Furthermore, it is a film about the absurdity of the current times we live in and nobody can argue that is isn’t crazy to deny facts in favour of outlandish fabrications — or can they?
There is something genuinely endearing about a film that doesn’t seem to care one bit about coming across as silly as long as its message is heard by the millions of viewers who have so far made it into the most watched film in the world after only two days of streaming.