Thanksgiving Turkey + Don't Look Up
Death by mansplaining can apparently take up to two and a half hours...
As you are all well aware, we’re all going to die. Typically sooner than we’d like.
And, to top it off, idiots of the world will likely make us die a lot sooner. Whether you die in a car crash at the clammy hands of a drunk driver or via human extinction because of an equally-clammy capitalists, death is inevitable.
What are you going to do with your little-yet-undetermined time left? Spend three hours of it watching a film that reminds you of the facts above and regurgitates the exhausting news and social media you see ever day? Maybe? "Okay," I imagine Don’t Look Up Director Adam McKay asked during this film's pitch meeting, "but what if it was an A-list 'comedy' with 2-3 laughs tops?"
Netflix: Don’t Look Up Publicity Still: Image Source
If Mansplaining Were a Movie…
In Don’t Look Up, McKay seems to think he’s the only person on Earth who understands the world we live in. The reality is we know all too well. For most folks, reddit-level commentary put to the tune of 24-frames-per-second will be but a band-aid covering the bleeding gunshot wound that is this film's bizarre, inept, and wholly cursed editing and writing style.
Every second of this movie is imploring you to not watch it with all its might.
Sure, there are a few funny jokes, in the way that Saturday Night Live seems to have a few comedic moments. SNL is a painful experience to watch these days, but the show provides the warm comfort of the echo chamber. This film, too, engages in the practice of chewing up hyper-cautious social commentary and spitting it back out at you under the guise of "comedy." Unfortunately, Don’t Look Up doesn’t have the same nostalgia on its side. The two-and-a-half hours of mansplaining is offensive, plain and simple.
Netflix: Don’t Look Up Publicity Still: Image Source
And yet…
Don’t Look Up is dare I say… entertaining? It taps into our deepest, sickest fantasies:
If you knew you were going to die, what would your last meal be?
Who would you want to be with in your final moments?
Are you the type of person who will actually stop the endless scroll of social media when the world is ending?
Do you have the skills and energy to work a job that actually has an impact on others?
Would you save the world, given the chance? Could you? Will you?
Of course, most of these questions are only explored in the films ending five minutes, during an apocalyptic Thanksgiving dinner between the characters of Timothée Chalamet, Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Melanie Lynskey and family. The egregious failures of the cinematic art in the preceding two hours are prerequisite to this climax. The choice is yours.
Netflix: Don’t Look Up Publicity Still: Image Source
Don’t Look Up (2021) Film Flavor Ratings:
Film Rating: ★½
Food Rating: ★★