Don't Look Up - 4 nominations

 

Best Motion Picture of the Year Adam McKay (producer) Kevin J. Messick (producer)

Best Achievement in Film Editing Hank Corwin

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Nicholas Britell

Best Original Screenplay Adam McKay (screenplay & story by) David Sirota (story by)

It starts as a comedy and satire, to be sure.  Scientists are warning of a meteorite that is plummeting toward earth that is sure to be a planetary killer.  Politicians are doing what they do - weighing how to save the earth while simultaneously delivering for their donors who would like to figure out a way to make money from the meteor's resources, and then finally, how to get the masses on their side.  How to sew discord among the people who are told there probably isn't even a meteor and that it's the liberal agenda combined with the "lamestream media" trying to dupe you into believing them, distracting from the plain truth in front of them.  When the meteor is suddenly visible from space, they are told not to look up into the sky so that they can continue to believe the lie.

It's true, I was laughing for most of the movie until it just felt too real and I just got nauseous.  The parallels are hard, so hard to watch.  There is even a moment when scientists figure out a way to launch missiles which would blow up the meteor and saving the earth, and the rockets are turned around for a wealthy CEO (a Jeff Bezos type) who wants to see if there are ways to profit from exploring the meteor's resources.  I heard an interview with Oscar nominated Adam McKay, and it's clear that they started to work on this film as a metaphor for climate change, and then COVID came along as the life-imitating art-imitating life reality.

The cast is great, the writing is whip smart, and frankly, it's the great liberal "I told you so" screw you mental masturbation so very targeted at those who are anti-science, easily duped by trite phrases and rallies.  But the I told you so seems less satisfying in the face of earth's actual destruction.  All I could think about as the movie concluded was my wise friend Steve Serpas' brilliant saying, "Understanding is the boobie prize."  Sure, they were right all along.  Sure, the media carried the talking points and never did any real analysis.  Sure, people could have easily fixed it by caring more about each other than individual rights or than doing their "own research" with no expertise to evaluate that "research."  But does any of that matter when the entire planet is dead?

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