Ty Watches "Don't Look Up"

I just finished "Don't Look Up". I am being as literal as possible. I just turned off my tv after watching the movie.

First off I loved it. It is a great movie, very well made, the acting is superb and it is wonderful. I do not understand the bad reviews. My only critique is that it is a bit too long, but it did not feel like any of the footage was overused or unnecessary. The movie is very funny, but also horrifying. I actually look at this movie more as a horror movie than a comedy.

For the people that do not know, the movie is about a comet the size of Mt Everest coming to Earth in six months. There are scientists, astronomers, doctors and other very smart people that want to do whatever they can to stop this comet. Then we have the politicians, their followers and the tv people that just want ratings who choose to ignore the smart people. We also have a tech company leader, a la Steve Jobs, who is a money grubbing genius, and may be the most evil of all the villains in the movie. I am not going to spoil the movie because people must watch this movie. It is an important piece of pop culture that perfectly encapsulates our modern society. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play the scientists, along with Rob Morgan. Lawrence discovers the comet, she tells her teacher and mentor, DiCaprio, about it and they celebrate, until they find out how disastrous this comet is going to be. They have done the calculations over and over again, and it keeps coming up that the comet will destroy Earth in just over six months. They tell Morgan's character this, and since he has connections to the White House, he gets them in front of the president.

Meryl Streep plays the president, and my goodness she is wonderfully scary in this role. She is this media obsessed, money grubbing scumbag of a person. She doesn't care about anyone but herself and she is all about her image and her votes. She crushes this role. Jonah Hill is her son and chief of staff. And he is woefully terrible at his job because he doesn't know what he is doing. There is a great runner that starts when the White House and scientists meet, and a general charges DiCaprio, Morgan and Lawrence for their snacks. Then they realize that they are free. It is truly the funniest bit in the movie.

From this meeting on out we get the whole social media circus. Tyler Perry and Cate Blanchett play a morning talk show team that just wants ratings. They loathe Lawrence and love DiCaprio. When Lawrence tells everyone the truth, she is immediately made out to be the pariah. She is memed to death. She is portrayed as the "bad guy", She is the only one that lets everyone know the truth from jump street. But that doesn't stop everyone from finding a person to bash. That is exactly what people do everyday now. It is maddening. And this movie shows that to perfection. Streep as the president takes even more of a heel turn when she gets rid of the original crew who told her what to do, and tells everyone to simply not look up. The comet is in the sky, we can all see it, but she is too busy worrying about the upcoming election. She goes so far as to put a hat on. It is frighteningly hilarious. And when stuff does hit the fan, the way people reacted, it sent chills up my spine. It was like looking at the real world. I cannot fathom what we would do as a country if this really happened. I have sat here just typing and thinking about how truly scary all of this would be. Then I remember that we have something similar with COVID. It is so wild and so scary.

Watch this movie now. It is required viewing. It is important to watch and discuss. Everyone must, must watch this movie. Please.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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