Don't Look Up director Adam McKay recalls the eerie similarities between his script and the early days of the pandemic. The satirical science-fiction film dropped on Netflix on December 24 after a limited theatrical run and attracted a large audience, setting a record for the most streaming hours within a single week. Reactions to the movie have been divided, however, resulting in a lot of discussion online.
Don't Look Up primarily follows two astronomers, Leonardo DiCaprio's Dr. Randall Mindy and Jennifer Lawrence's Kate Dibiasky, after they discover a large comet on course for an extinction-level collision with Earth. Their journey begins with their findings being rebuffed by US President Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep), who is more concerned about how the news would affect her re-election chances, which sets them on a path to convincing the general public that is far more difficult than they expected. The star-studded cast also includes Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Timothée Chalamet, and Ariana Grande, among others.
Though Don't Look Up was written as a climate-change allegory, McKay notes in an interview with Variety that the similarities between his script and the events of the early pandemic were surreal. The movie was in pre-production at the time of the initial lockdown, and though filming was originally scheduled to start in April 2020, the cameras wouldn't actually start rolling until November. McKay says that he started to get texts from cast and crew as soon as everything shut down that pointed out how his film's scenarios were becoming reality:
It was a strange experience, writing the script, casting it, scouting and then having to stop go into the quarantine … and then every other day getting texts from department heads or cast going, ‘Oh, my God, did you see this just happen? This is in your script!’ And then three days later, ‘Oh, my God, this just happened. This is in the script!’
McKay and Co. weren't alone in noticing the similarities, as one key reason Don't Look Up has resonated with its fans has been its depiction of politicized disbelief of science. Whether viewers believe the movie's satire hits its desired target has proven a matter of intense debate, with many lashing out at critics who wrote negative reviews as being dismissive of the importance of its message. McKay, for his part, said he welcomes Don't Look Up's bad reviews and believes a polarized response is a good indicator that his film has struck a nerve with viewers.
There are, however, legitimate reasons to be critical of McKay's latest, and though many of its detractors have simply declared it lacking in humor, others have argued that the central metaphor of the comet doesn't represent climate change all that well. Still, despite its divisiveness, Don't Look Up looks to be a major player this awards season after picking up a SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Viewers can expect to hear a lot more about the satirical film as the Academy Awards broadcast approaches.
Source: Variety