"Civilization is not by any means an easy thing to attend to. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured the other by being corrupt."–Oscar Wilde
This is what Lord Henry said to Dorian as they discussed the lack of temptation in the countryside. Lordy Henry may have been corrupt himself and spewed plenty dark philosophies that contributed to the scars on Dorian Gray's soul, but many of the things he said were awfully true. And Don't Look Up seems to be a perfect demonstration of how, as humans civilized, more have become corrupt rather than cultured.
Don’t Look Up Review–Plot
When I watched this movie, many people seem to already have. I see people discussing the Chinese translation of the movie title in translator and interpreter groups, I saw people posting on their Instagram stories that they enjoyed the movie. But no one told be how absolutely infuriating it would be. That someone of sound mind honestly cannot make it through this movie without the help of some sort of substance. Which is why Ares and I paused several times to scream at the screen.
It reminded us of the movie Idiocracy, but unlike the 2006 sci-fi movie, this felt dangerously close to home. The storyline was undoubtedly written well. It's set in a time that is much like the world we currently live in, and is a clear depiction of how incompetent and ridiculously stupid people are capable of being. You see shadows of the real world everywhere, and horrifyingly, you can imagine everything in the movie happening in real life. It's like you are watching real people callously disregarding or doubting imminent threat that would affect everyone. People and politicians taking to social media, everything was about riling people up and winning the next election.
"Politicians don’t care about the future generation. They used to care about the next election but now they care about the next public opinion pole. Which could be tomorrow, or next week!"–Mario Monti, former Prime Minister of Italy
In my freshman year, our school invited Mr. Monti, who was the president of Bocconi University at the time, to give a speech at our university. This was one of his quotes from the day that stuck with me ever since. I wrote in my diary that day "An obvious example is: when an election is coming up, candidates never propose practical and vital resolutions since it might cause them to lose votes. When a governor in Taiwan proposes a policy that would exceed their term, namely over 4-8 years, and would require the next governor to cooperate, members and supporters from the opposing political party often question them by claiming that they are getting ahead of themselves." Because to plan for the future, is now considered an arrogance to believe that someone else would follow through with your plan. No one likes to make hard decisions to deal with real problems anymore because it's more important that they are well-liked. As Lord Henry so accurately phrased "Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular, one must be a mediocrity."
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We are all so used to democracy, and I'm not saying that I do not support it, to the point that we forget that every system is flawed. Democracy is a system that could only work if all parties involved were educated, logical, and intelligent. Some are going to accuse me of being an elitist on a high horse at this point, and I have been called that in the past, but I stand by what I believe. It has been repeatedly shown in literature, movies, and real life–Lord of the Flies, Voyagers, and how the world faced COVID-19–over and over because it is true. Democracy is a tragedy if the majority of the people are ignorant either by choice or kept in the dark.
Don’t Look Up Review–Cast
The cast was obviously impressive. When I saw it being shown at the beginning of the movie, it seemed like Netflix was trying to say “hey! Look how rich I am, I paid for Meryl Streep AND Leonardo Di Caprio.” But I have no doubt that the acting was certainly worth the price. Meryl Streep has never annoyed me so much, and Ares kept exclaiming that he has never hated Di Caprio like this. In an attempt not to spoil the movie in any way, I have to be vague. But they both showed us the different aspects of being unsure of oneself yet arrogant, selfishness, and utter cowardliness.
Jennifer Lawrence was the character that helped say what the screaming audience wants to. Her outbursts and frustration towards the system conveys how bewildered I felt about how people were reacting. Then, her giving up is the exasperation we feel towards our helpless surrender to society norms.
Ariana Grande sang beautifully, and I'd like to mention how great she is at playing the role of the ditzy but talented girl since Cat in Victorious.
Mark Rylance was so awkward, even in the way that he spoke, that it seemed as if the personality of his character was real.
I love Cate Blanchett's character which showed how some people choose to act air-headed so as to win over the public and feed into the modern society's predilection for having everything be light-hearted and unwillingness to face bad news.
Don’t Look Up Review–Conclusion
If you enjoy being shown the dark truth, you would love this movie, but get ready to shout obscenities at your screen. It is sprinkled with dark humor and includes behavior that is so absurd that it seems almost funny, but at the same time pathetic because you probably know someone who would do something similar.
You will see the main characters all dealing it with the crisis in different ways, acting out, being in denial, feeling powerful or powerless. It would remind you of he past turbulent couple of year, where we struggled to act as if everything was normal and lead our regular lives while some acted oblivious and authorities did inexplainable things.
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