27 February 2022

Don't Look Up (Sydney Moonlight Cinema)


To be honest, the fact that I watched this on a large screen with an audience in an outdoor cinema, under a clear summer night with stars, definitely played a part in the surreal enjoyment of this extremely Adam McKay satirical film. It was the most McKay-ish of his recent films, and he kept the level up throughout the whole 2hours-plus film. That could have been a bit too much. The jokes and gags just kept coming on one after another, and ran again and again. The ridiculous satirical nature of deniers and right-wing ideologists, though rang true and funny in the first half, was exhausting and draining towards the back half.

That said, the ensemble cast was excellent. I forgot what a good actress Jennifer Lawrence used to be when she first started before she got distracted by mediocre-to-bad, Hollywood fluffs. Her comedic timing was brilliant as well her meme-able facial reactions. Leonardo DiCaprio too was refreshing and could be a long shot for a Best Actor nomination. Everybody loves him and he genuinely looked like he was having fun.

Other big-named standouts included Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett, both actresses looked great and really just embraced the satirical hamminess of it all. And Mark Rylance was a treasure as the deadpanned technocrat. Even Jonah Hill and Timotheé Chalamet were acceptably funny as McKay dished Hill out sparingly and kept Chalamet’s peacock showiness to a minimum.

Linus Sandgren’s cinematography and Nicholas Britell’s music were beautiful, with the latter a strong contender for an Oscar nomination.

Editing and original screenplay nominations are almost a sure bet too. Also a top 10 Best Picture nod, buoyed by the amazing cast and the Hollywood-approved, politically correct message.

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