I watched the “movie” “Don’t Look Up” the other night with my wife. Wow. I’m not sure how anybody involved with this thing could have deluded themselves into thinking they were actually making a movie. There goes all respect that may have lingered in my heart for Meryl Streep, Leo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jonah Hill. They all outed themselves in this one. This was the most overt piece of propaganda I’ve ever seen, and I’m still flabbergasted that something so obvious and smarmy could find its way to the screen and people are actually expected to enjoy it.
Our heroes
Lawrence and DiCaprio play the scientists here—honest, hard-working, afraid-of-the-limelight nerds who discover a comet heading straight for Earth! Streep is the President of the United States, so obviously a caricature of Trump it’s not even funny. She is advised/controlled by a Jeff Bezos/Elon Musk/Steve Jobs character who convinces her to try and blow the comet into tiny pieces so as to capture all the $140 trillion of rare metals and minerals inside, rather than just nuke it off course like NASA has planned.
The darn prez-supporting redneck conspiracy theorists don’t buy that a comet is coming and call it a hoax! The good science-following liberals organize a campaign called “Just Look Up” once the comet is visible in the night sky, and host a huge benefit concert with a performance by Arianna Granda. Yes, the actual singer performs an actual fake song in front of an actual fake audience in this movie, and we Netflix viewers are supposed to sit there happily and enjoy it! We fast-forwarded through that one.
When the pop stars are singing at a benefit concert, you know the cause is true and just!
In the end, the Bezos robots fail to blow the comet up. Hapless Russia, India and China’s combined effort fails to launch, and the comet hits Earth. Streep and “Bezos” escape along with 2,000 other elites in a space ship where their bodies are frozen until they touch down on their new planet. Everyone else dies. All the animals too. At the end of the world, Dicaprio and the rest of our friends have a sit-down family dinner in Michigan and talk about baby deer and grinding coffee, and hold hands and pray to God, who decides to wipe them out completely anyway. Horrific shots ensue of sea lions scrambling to escape a tidal wave and a Native American doing a ceremonial dance and beating a drum as comets strike the forest.
The main takeaways for us viewers seem to be:
1. Trust the Science and the Scientists!!
Damnit, they’re trying to tell you that the Earth is going to end, not take away your rights!! Dicaprio near the end throws shade on the Bezos plan by repeatedly questioning whether his methods have been “peer-reviewed”. They say it probably a half-dozen times. As if outer space drones that land on asteroids and inject tiny nuclear devices is something that can be peer-reviewed! What a joke. Just a handy catchphrase being promoted to easily dismiss anything that hasn’t been vetted by the scientific establishment. Never mind that there are thousands of peer-reviewed studies that directly conflict the official narrative on COVID 19, and that the fundamental studies of the official narrative are garbage.
2. People are Stupid and Shallow and Deserve to Die
Unable to put aside their political differences in order to perceive the impending destruction of our species, human beings pretty much deserve to die, don’t they? They’re more concerned with getting likes and followers, or with protecting their “rights” than paying attention to what might kill them all. So, so very stupid are these people. Especially the white conservative ones.
3. Big Corporate Greed is The Problem
It’s all about money! The darn politicians are bought by the nasty big corporations and they all just wanna make money. They couldn’t resist trying to mine the incoming comet for precious metal, and that’s why we’re all gonna die. Nothing more complicated than that, folks! At the highest levels, it really just comes down to people trying to make money. There’s definitely not anything deeper or spiritual or complex or sinister going on here—just stupid, short-sighted greedy people making bad decisions and being incompetent. Nothing really can be done about that! The “Punk” character who hooks up with J. Lawrence near the end steals booze with his punk friends and skateboards and talks about sinister government agendas, to which J. Lawry, with personal first-hand knowledge from being inside the White House, replies “sorry guys, the truth isn’t nearly that exciting—it’s just short-sighted incompetent greedy people trying to make money.” Not only does this punk go down rabbit holes of outlandish conspiracy theories like “there’s more than just greed and incompetence at play here”, he’s also a Jesus Freak!! He believes in God and prays to God. It’s sorta cute and J. Lawry tolerates it because we’re all about to die anyway.
4. Goddamn Conspiracy Theorists!
Poor Leo DiCaprio has to sit at his computer for hours typing replies to the goddamn stupid conspiracy theorists that attack him on Twitter with their goddamn stupid unscientific conspiracy theories! This poor honest scientist is trying to save humanity, and he has to deal with these ignorant conspiracy theorists who don’t even have PHD’s questioning him on Twitter!!
5. There’s Nothing one Man or Woman Can Do
“We tried! Oh, how we tried!” our heroes lament at their last supper. We even got Arianna Grande to perform at our benefit concert! Unfortunately, the wrong person was president, so all of our efforts were in vain. I mean, if only a democrat had been in office, then obviously humanity would’ve been saved. Otherwise, there’s really nothing that a single man or woman can do to affect change. You’re just one puny little ant on this planet! So yeah, probably you shouldn’t bother trying to change the world—just vote Blue!
What a marvelous set of lessons for 2022! As we look back at the pandemic—or try not to—we get everything tied up into a nice little package that we can feel good about: Orange Man Bad, Science Good, Pop Stars Good, Me Smart for Voting Democrat and being able to say “Peer Reviewed”.
Sorry, it’s actually far more subtle and nuanced than that: Corporate Control Bad! Big Tech Bad haha Me Probably Shouldn’t Use Phone All The Time Because They’re Mining my Data. Me Not Mind-Controlled Because Me Critical of Big Corporations and Politicians!
Dear God. I know of no greater insult to the intelligence of men and women than these Hollywood assholes getting together to slip this crude piece of propaganda into our brains. It saddens me to imagine that some people might actually watch this and not guffaw at this outrageous attempt at tying a bow around the past two years of insanity and instead just chuckle at the ignorant rednecks and say something like “oh man, it’s so true!”, and munch on their popcorn while Arianna Grande performs and think back to the benefit concert that the singers put on early in the pandemic and rest assured they they’ve been on the right side all along, and thank God that we finally got Trump out of office and everything is okay now—mostly—as long as we can keep marginalizing and ignoring conspiracy theorists!
Of course, this goes out straight to Netflix and not actual movie theaters where actual men and women might watch it together and a few might laugh outloud at the propaganda and the tiny little voices inside that say “I think I’m being brainwashed” might have a chance at some confirmation from fellow human beings. No, instead this piece of shit is slipped out on people’s home TV’s, where it’s just them alone or with another person who agrees with them completely and the viewing experience is followed by little more than a yawn and a little chuckle “huh!”, and then off to bed. Sweet dreams!
Here’s a more thoughtfully written review of Don’t Look Up: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/movie-review-dont-look-up
February 28, 2022 at 12:20 am
Don’t Look Up was written in 2019 about the climate crisis and has nothing to do with COVID.
September 28, 2022 at 2:24 pm
Well that’s interesting to know! Amazing how similar the two narratives are: COVID and Climate Change. Both will require regular men and women to give up their freedom for the sake of the “greater good”, according to “science” that is created by “the experts”.