Film Friday: Thanks to star-studded cast, 'Don't Look Up' definitely worth a look

Every Friday, Nevada Sports Net's Jared Brosnan, a lover of film and television, will review one movie or show and give you his thoughts heading into the weekend.

Don't Look Up

Run time: 2 hours, 18 minutes

Where to watch: Netflix exclusive

Director: Adam McKay

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep

Plot in 25 words or less: Two astronomers discover a giant comet headed for Earth and are forced to warn the public, media and U.S. government about the impending apocalyptic destruction.

Full review

In what is becoming one of the most debated films of the 2022 Oscar season, Don't Look Up and director Adam McKay are doing exactly what the movie was intended to do: Enhance the growing discussion around climate change and disastrous effects scientists have warned will happen if society, government and industry continue its current path of production and consumption. There is no general consensus when it comes to Don't Look Up, which currently has a 55 percent critic score and 77 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie is and tries to be over the top in its scenarios in order to deliver its message. After all, it's a satire about how little people care about climate change because many do not see the effects in their own lives at the moment. Michigan State professor Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio) and graduate student Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence) struggle to explain the severity of the situation to President Orlean (Streep) and her Chief of Staff son Jason (Jonah Hill) in what is obviously a parody of the nepotism-filled Trump administration.

The strongest performance by far in a cast starring some of the biggest actors and musicians of the day is Mark Rylance playing tech tycoon Peter Isherwell. Rylance perfectly portrays today's current modern billionaire, a socially awkward yet genius tech mogul whose company is able to even predict how someone will die. He should be nominated for Best Supporting Actor. I recommend people watch this movie if you're a fan of DiCaprio, McKay or Ariana Grande having a fun cameo satirizing how much people care about celebrity relationships, including the ones she has had in the past.

It's possible DiCaprio will be nominated for Best Actor as his freak out on live television where he looks directly into the camera explaining to the world not every story needs to have a positive element is a fantastic scene. His monologue is the basis for the entire movie and what McKay and co-writer David Sirota are trying to get across to viewers. We are seeing the effects of climate change first hand in Northern Nevada after a devastating wildfire season during the summer of 2021. McKay and DiCaprio themselves have made climate change their main focus of work beyond their filmmaking and believe this is the best way for them to get their message out there other than social media.

This movie has plenty of the dark humor McKay has shown in his previous two Oscar-winning movies, The Big Short (2015) and Vice (2018), the former being his best post-Will Ferrell-led comedies, (Anchorman, Step Brothers, Ricky Bobby). The previous two have been about real-life events, the 2008 financial crisis and Dick Cheney's rise to the vice presidency. Don't Look Up, of course, is fiction but does scare people enough to turn it into realistic-fiction. I highly recommend you watch The Big Short for those who lived through that crisis but did not fully understand the cause and effect of what was going on at that time in the housing market and on Wall Street.

The movie has garnered enough positive reviews from the general public and climate scientists to get some Oscar nominations through Rylance and DiCaprio's performance. Just Look Up performed by Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi, cowritten by them and the movie's composer Nicholas Britell (Emmy winner for Succession's main theme), has a chance for Best Original Song. With the Golden Globes usually taking place in mid-January, now being blacklisted by Hollywood and NBC this year due to failed commitments made by the HFPA (and possible other award shows being postponed due to the Omicron variant), it will be a while until we see how this movie will do in awards season. While people who are skeptical of worst-case scenario climate-change effects might not be persuaded much, it will still make people laugh and start a discussion, which is exactly why McKay made the movie in the first place.

Rating: 3/4 Comets

NSN Daily producer Jared Brosnan grew up experiencing and working in the film industry around Los Angeles. He graduated from Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, ranked as the fourth-best film school by the Hollywood Reporter in 2021. You can email him at jabrosnan@sbgtv.com and follow him on Twitter @jared_brosnan.