Don't Look Up (not a review)

-


A comet is on its way to hit the earth and wipe off the entire life or civilization, or whatever we call it. Now think of this – that precisely is the broad theme of a 2 hour long comedy, of all things. 

The expected collision is to occur in 6 months and a few days. Considering it's Hollywood, that is a tight timeline. It is supposed to get heads rolling, or so as Leonardo Dicaprio and Jenifer Lawrence opine. But what actually ensues is a far cry from the expectations of these two ‘science people'. The world is obsessed about two pop stars breaking up, the Government is busy with 'other important matter' at hand and in the officialise of some higher ups and powers-that-are, "Let's not get too dramatic about it" and "Let's sit tight and assess." And Lawrence's boyfriend thinks it's her excuse to avoid meeting his mother (which I somehow felt legit).  

“Don't Look Up” is a well told story of the frustrations of the ominous voices left unheard by shallow ears, the bewilderment that institutions feel when the writing on the wall is blatantly ignored - all those in a world consumed by trivialities. The movie is more than a satire. There is one scene where Meryl Streep scoffs (she does that a lot. In the movie of course) and mentions that there had been several similar ‘end-of-the-world’ discussions in the last few years, which included global warming, poverty, automobile pollution, disease and so on. The hint is clear.

The movie is about the celestial and is also star-studded. The lead actors are Lawrence and Leo (lead actors, considering that they were the first two to make screen presence in the movie, and also because they discovered the comet. It’s difficult to say when there are so many; it’s almost a Karan Johar family drama star cast from the early 2000s). There is no comparison between these two actors. And there is no need even, given that it’s such a joy watching them together onscreen for the first time. Both are Academy award winners, Leo taking a famously long time to get his, while Lawrence, well…a journalist asked her if she wasn’t sacred to achieve so much in so little time. 

Speaking of Academy awards, I just realized, who isn’t in this movie – Cate Blanchett, Mark Rylance, Meryl Streep…

The movie has Timothe’e Chalamet too. I mean what’s with this guy? Dude plays the King of England in ‘The King’ who brings the King of France to his knees in a duel. And in this movie, he plays a 16-year old or something, with shoulder length hair, moving around with his cool friends with a skateboard, and the only thing that comes to his mind in the face of an apocalypse is to make out.  Chalamet is definitely one of the finest finds in Hollywood of this era. 

Don’t Look Up didn’t blow my mind (I often expect that from a Dicaprio or Jenifer Lawrence movie). But it’s a decent dark comedy, although a few situational jokes didn’t seem spontaneous. It is a very fresh movie to end the year with, given the times we live in.  And as the cliché goes…comedy to those that think, tragedy to those that feel, director Adam McKay does a commendable job. 

Go watch. The year has almost ended. And we are still here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

sand on water

-
Image
The Brahmaputra river has a east to west stretch of approximately 728 kilometres in Assam. During its early stages and as a young river, it brings with it a lot of eroded materials. The speed of the river somewhat slows down after it enters Assam through Arunachal Pradesh. The sandbars or the small sandy islands along the river's stretch  account for about 5 per cent of the total area of the state. They are locally called char/sor. Suspended particles and the bed load often combine during floods to create these char formations. Their rich alluvial soil is ideal for crops such as mustard, sugarcane, jute, potatoes and other vegetables.  But these chars are at a perpetual risk of destruction during the next flood. I had an opportunity to visit the char areas of North Salmara in connection with polling station inspection of Assembly Elections, 2020. The pictures were taken during those visits.
Read more

The Legend of Balram Halwai

-
Image
It was the summer of 2010 when I first met Balram Halwai. I reached hostel three days before the classes were to start. It was the penultimate year of a tepid four year long education, and I had got a room for myself on the top floor. When I entered the room, I found that it was barren. It's previous inhabitant - a fat guy who was known to carry out fermentation experiments in that room - had left nothing except for the bed and a broken table. I dropped my hold-all on the ground and pressed all the switches on the switchboard...nothing. Electricity had always been a problem during summer. I felt tired for no reason and longed for a nap. But the thought of unfolding my hold-all and taking out the mattress seemed laborious enough to kill me. I walked across to the decrepit table and wondered if it would be of any use. I pulled open the drawer in hope of finding nothing at all, but did expect to see some loose change. And that’s when I saw the tiger. The White Tiger. I was told that t...
Read more