Some people get satire and some people don’t, just like any style of comedy, so whenDon’t Look Uparrived on Netflix some immediately “got” the joke and others failed to see the funny side, or the serious message behind the film’s apocalyptic story. CreatorAdam McKaydoesn’t really mind either way, as he has responded to the movie’s critics with the very simple statement of “you’re never going to make a movie to appeal to everyone.”
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, the director discussed the star-studded movie that takes a long hard look at how the world sometimes struggles to see its own impending doom in the world of social media and political agendas.
“Comedy is always subjective,” McKay said. “Certain people are going to think things are too funny or silly or not care for them so that’s built in. You’re never going to make a movie to appear to everyone.”
Don’t Look Upbecame an instant Netflix hit, with a huge Oscar-winning ensemble cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Cate Blanchett to name a few and a word of mouth reputation that proved how divisive satire can be. Some loved it, but others hated it. Critical reviews were no less mixed, and the internet became awash with discussions about how the world’s current real life climate issues can be best represented on screen, and all of this ended up with the movie becoming the second most-watched movie in Netflix history worldwide, and already taking the top spot in 87 individual countries.
“The idea behind it was ‘How do we get this urgency out there?’,” McKay went on to say. “The science is telling us that the problem is happening right now and it’s far worse than we thought. I felt like laughter was a good way to go because if you’re laughing then you inherently have some perspective.”
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Don’t Look Up Is a Frighteningly Accurate Portrayal of How Humans React To a Crisis
Three decades ago, the world was much less connected than it is now. People only heard about the news that was important enough to make the 30-minute daily headlines broadcast on networks two or three times a day, or by picking up a paper. The internet has made everything available all at once, any time of day, which could have improved communications, but asDon’t Look Upalludes to, it has simply made it harder to work out what to believe.
The Covid pandemic brought many opinions and challenges, and none more that the many theories that gained momentum on the internet. Everyone had their own opinions, based on other people’s opinions, about what should be done and what shouldn’t be done.Don’t Look Uptook that very real public attitude of “I know better than you” and “nothing is as bad as they make out”, and put it directly in the path of a fictional end of the world scenario, while linking the whole thing to the ongoing open discussion on climate change. Having set out to get people actively talking about the subject, it seems that, whatever audience or critics may say, McKay has certainly achieved that with his movie.
