This Christmas, dark comedy won the day for many families thanks to the new Netflix original film Don’t Look Up. The movie was the number 1 movie and the number 1 title overall on Netflix over the weekend. Those who haven’t watched it yet may want to put it on the queue, or they’ll soon be feeling a bit behind.
Don’t Look Up is directed and co-written by Adam McKay, who shares the story credit with writer David Sirota. It has a star-studded cast including Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande and more. It’s about two average scientists (Lawrence and DiCaprio) who discover a comet on a deadly collision course with earth. In spite of their definitive proof, the duo struggles to convince anyone of the significance of their findings.
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DiCaprio plays Dr. Randall Mindy, a professor at Michigan State University, while Lawrence plays Kate Dibiasky, a graduate student who discovers the comet while working with the Subaru Telescope. Together, they calculate the comet’s trajectory and estimate that it will cause a global extinction event. They are able to get the attention of Dr. Teddy Oglethrope (Morgan) of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, but struggle to make an impression on politicians, the media or the public.
Streep plays President Janie Orlean, who is apathetic towards the news of the impending global catastrophe. The scientists spend more time interfacing with her son and chief of staff, Jason Orlean (Hill), who makes light of their findings and does little to help.
Netflix’s in-house lists prove that the movie got a lot of attention this weekend, though the specific ratings haven’t been released yet. Despite the widespread viewership, the reviews so far have been average, with a 6.2 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes. According to the site’s critical consensus, “Don’t Look Up aims too high for its scattershot barbs to consistently land, but Adam McKay’s star-studded satire hits its target of collective denial square on.”
Still, Don’t Look Up has already won awards from the National Board of Review, the Detroit Film Critics Society and the American Film Institute Awards. Other nominations are still pending, including the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Don’t Look Up is streaming now on Netflix.
