Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are personal and are not intended to offend any person or group in particular. The purpose of this critique is to foster a constructive and reflective conversation about the film Don't Look Up.
Today I want to share with you my experience with one of those movies that everyone talks about but I never found the right moment to watch: Don't Look Up. Finally, a few days ago, I decided to give it a chance, and I have to say it was an interesting experience, to say the least.
From the beginning, I had heard that Don't Look Up was a very strong and profound film. However, what I saw was more a mockery of the actors, cinema in general, and, above all, the audience. The plot is predictable, and the comedy is quite easy, as if they were trying to make us feel like real fools.
What I found particularly curious is how the film reflects certain political interests. There are moments when I wondered if the opinions being reflected were those of the director or the actors themselves, and, honestly, at times, the excessive and ridiculed criticism seems to lack solid foundations.
Despite this, Don't Look Up manages to entertain and captivate. It's one of those movies that, although it makes you roll your eyes from time to time, keeps you glued to the screen. The performances are good, but I feel that with such a stellar cast, they could have been better. Maybe it was a stylistic choice, who knows.
And maybe we defend these caricatured characters from time to time, but there comes a moment when even DiCaprio struggles to escape such a flat character with few nuances. Special mention: Meryl Streep, who perhaps motivated by her dislike of the real parallel to the role she plays, makes us believe any nonsense her character says as possible. But well, if all this fails and you get bored, we pull the easiest joke we have out of our hat.
Others are on screen solely because of their fame and their media and possibly political impact, but come on, we keep falling head over heels into the same things the film tries to criticize.
It's interesting how the movie, in its attempt to criticize manipulation and misinformation, can fall into the same trap it tries to denounce. This duality can be seen as a flaw in the narrative or as a deliberate strategy to provoke debate and reflection. Personally, I don't think so.
And sometimes everything is so totalitarian and one-sided that it seems that the film itself and the people behind it boast of having the power to alienate part of the audience, filling their target audience with more falsehoods, fears, and polarized opinions. And I'm not talking about the lack of criticism of an imaginary blue party and the excessive hatred of a red one. I'm talking about skewing personal opinions and common sense because definitely nothing in life is black and white, or red and blue.
If we want to tackle a problem, let's get to its root, a root that, despite being more apparent at first glance in certain groups of people, has a universal origin. In general, the denial of scientific facts and misinformation are problems that can affect any political group, and it is crucial to address these issues with a critical and evidence-based perspective. To combat it, political, ideological, and even religious biases should be avoided as weapons. Because if the directors didn't make it clear with the script, we are all responsible for each other.
And let's not talk about its ending, which falls into predictability almost 40 minutes before the end of the film. There are no unexpected twists, no impactful resolution.
In summary, Don't Look Up is a movie that I liked, despite its evident flaws. It makes you think, even if it's to question the intentions behind its creation. It's controversial, and that's always interesting in the world of cinema. At the end of the day, it achieves its goal: it makes us talk about it, and maybe that's the most important thing.
What do you think? Do you agree with me, or do you think I'm missing something deeper? I would love to read your opinions.
