“Don’t Look Up” in the cinema and on Netflix: Goodbye, humanity – culture

The world is going down. Again And if you yawn now because you have been served this scenario from Hollywood a thousand times, you are of course not entirely wrong.

At the beginning of the film “Don’t Look Up”, a doctoral student (Jennifer Lawrence) and her professor (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover a comet. Of course it is racing towards the earth inexorably and is of course much bigger than the thing that pulverized the dinosaurs back then. Does anyone have a blockbuster déjà vu? “Armageddon” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/. “Deep Impact”. We know. When in doubt, Bruce Willis flies up and blows the thing up, even if he explodes too. That was the comet problem solution at the turn of the millennium. In retrospect, one wonders how much cocaine exactly the scriptwriters were given back then by the film studios before they sat down at the computer. But well, that’s another topic.

Because: “Don’t Look Up” is not another disaster film from the old Republican Hollywood construction kit. The world has turned a few loops of selfishness. Today Bruce Willis would probably say: Just fly up yourself if the comet doesn’t suit you.

“Don’t Look Up” is a feature film about the irrefutable certainty that when the going gets tough, mankind is of course not only unable to save itself – but also accelerates its own end as much as possible. Greta Thunberg should find this film very plausible. You can’t blame the makers for selling their work as a comedy, but the truth is, it’s maybe more of a tragedy.

Comet? Which comet? The demonstrators in the film are reminiscent of the real corona deniers

Doctoral student Kate and Professor Randall calculate that the comet will hit in a good six months and trigger a bunch of tsunamis. Chances of survival for the human species: zero.

In the old Hollywood action cinema there was always that beautiful moment when the bad news was conveyed to the responsible authorities in a telephone call, which set in motion a huge state apparatus that spared no effort to find the best of the best to solve the problem solve. There is also this call in “Don’t Look Up”. Kate and Randall immediately raise the alarm to the government. But it happens first of all: nothing at all.

The President of the United States, played by Meryl Streep, what Hilary Clinton looks like and how Donald Trump acts, finds the news insanely boring. Because all the scientists who audition for her keep proclaiming the end day after day. Who cares? And even if the comet really existed, she says, the timing would be very bad. Because shortly before the midterm elections you can’t announce the end of the world. Sorry

The only one who believes the two provincial scientists is the head of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office. This authority really does exist. Your logo is a man standing on a tower with a spear in one hand and binoculars in the other, with which he looks at the stars. You can even buy patches of their logo. In reality, however, it could be about as influential as it is portrayed in the film, namely not at all.

The comet prophets turn to the media in desperation. But that doesn’t help either, because the viewers, readers and users, as survivors of the Trump generation, have long since learned to regard scientific facts only as a nerd opinion of left-wing radical green-sprout-eaters. With Trump’s enthusiasm, a “Don’t Look Up” movement was founded in the film. Thousands demonstrate in the streets. Don’t look up, they demand. There is no comet at all! Oh mankind.

The film was directed by Adam McKay, who began his career with comedies such as Anchorman. In recent years he has become Hollywood’s most ardent exponent in the real satire genre. He made “The Big Short” about the 2008 financial crisis and “Vice” about the diabolical machinations of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Adam McKay gets pretty much every superstar for his films

McKay has developed a distinctive directorial style made up of quick dialogues, quick cuts and frank dramaturgical escalation, which one could almost describe as manic and which he also uses again in “Don’t Look Up”. He gets pretty much every superstar he wants for his films. In addition to Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep, guest roles include Cate Blanchet, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande and Jonah Hill.

“Don’t Look Up” is a parody of the Trump years. And, albeit coincidentally, because it was not foreseeable at the time of the shooting, on how people would deal with Corona. In their furore, the virus deniers are very reminiscent of the comet deniers, which is why it is the perfect film for and about this pandemic winter.

Open detailed view

This leads to the strange effect that most jokes are no longer so funny, but rather tragic, because reality has at least already drawn level with fiction. In the middle of the film, a tech guru appears who identifies the comet as the ideal raw material source for smartphone production. Which is why he wants to smash it before the impact and then evaluate the remaining chunks, even if a few unimportant countries like Chile drown in the sea. There is not just one megalomaniac in Silicon Valley who would be trusted to do such a project in real life.

So is it all too late? Are people such fools that they deserve nothing but a deadly comet that they argue about until the sky falls on their heads? The film has a pretty straightforward answer to that.

Don’t look up, USA 2021 – Director, book: Adam McKay. Camera: Linus Sandgren. Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep. Netflix, 138 minutes. Theatrical release: December 9th Streaming start: December 24th