DON'T LOOK UP

The picture never finds the right tone of voice, struggles for wit and takes an awful long time to go from one story beat to the next.

If movies are supposed to be more than an idea with potential, hastily scribbled on the back of a napkin, clearly Adam McKay didn't get the memo.

His newest big-budget, Hollywood superstar- heavy comedy Don't Look Up feels more like an unwieldy, unfocused, underdeveloped student film than the work of someone with a screenwriting Oscar on his mantlepiece. Intended as a satire on flat-earthers, anti-vaxers and widening divisions in society the picture never finds the right tone of voice, struggles for wit and takes an awful long time to go from one story beat to the next.

McKay's previous pictures suffered from similar flaws, but at least they had some stellar performances or memorable scenes. Don't Look Up has none of those. On the contrary, the picture can boast one of the worst Meryl Streep performances in living memory and shreds to pieces a handful of intriguing sequences with misguided, choppy editing.

So my advice for anyone wanting to check out Don't Look Up is simple: don't bother looking at all.

release: 2021

director: Adam McKay

starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett