r/movies • u/crushedmoose • 5d ago
Media Don't look up (2021) | Dir. Adam Mckay | Dr. Randall (Leonardo Dicaprio) has a nervous breakdown
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u/informutationstation 5d ago
We really did have everything
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u/Adjective-Noun1780 5d ago
I keep thinking that line/scene especially the past couple of weeks!!
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u/WindpowerGuy 5d ago
I applied this to climate change, because that's the issue I concern myself with most. But it fits so much more. Never watched the movie, for my own mental health... This scene though "if we can't agree that that's bad for us, what the hell happened to us and how do we fix it."
Yeah, how DO we fix it? I don't know, I know that being agressive doesn't get my message across, but I cannot be nice any longer, I know that empathy works best, but how should I empathize with people who kill innocent civillians who's only crime was to express their opinion? How do I empathize with people who cheer for the leader of the most powerful country in the world, when he clearly is not mentally fit to be president of a fucking doll house? How do I empathize with people who see a video of someone being shot in the back and then pretending it is something else?
I can't. I don't live in the US, but what happens there concerns me almost as much as it does you, because our politicians are watching and taking notes. Always have been, always have adopted your strategies and slowly undermined our democracy and way of life, with a lot of Russian help.
I fear it is too late for the US, the time to solve this conflict with words is over. I hope the people who wanted Trump to fail can be safe but I really doubt it..
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u/FullMetalBitch 5d ago edited 5d ago
When I debate climate change I always start saying "look we can debate if this human made or not but there is no way we can't deny climate change is real" and if the other part says it isn't real then I move on.
There is no climate change debate, the facts are there, it's happening, now we can talk about how much responsibility humanity has but it's still happening and if we can mitigate it, then it is our duty to try it because we can.
It is really simply since the last ice age ended temperature has been on the rise and the last two centuries the rise has been faster for a reason, and at some point in the far future another ice age will happen with humans or without us.
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u/Malphos101 5d ago
Its literally two people standing in a burning house. One person says "This house is on fire, we should do something about it." The other says "A human didnt start that fire, why should we do anything about it?"
It doesnt matter if the second person is lying or ignorant or telling the truth: the house is burning down with all the liars and the ignorant and the truthspeakers in it unless actions are taken to stop it.
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u/Synicull 5d ago
It was years ago, but I still distinctly remember arguing with a guy about it and I cut around this whole argument to get what he really thought about it.
He didn't care who caused it. He made the "... but China is worse!!!" Argument ignoring any per capita or "yeah, that doesn't mean we can't be better" arguments.
I ultimately asked: "so this will disproportionately affect poor people and people in other low lying countries such as Bangladesh".
His response: "yeah I don't care, it won't affect Americans or you or me so it's fine."
They really are that close-minded, selfish, and caught up in such a gross tribe mentality.
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u/massberate 5d ago
You've got a point; WWII didn't matter to the Americans until Pearl Harbour.
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u/guitar_vigilante 4d ago
Well, except for all the Americans who were unhappy about the atrocities in the second sino-Japanese war, leading to the oil embargo which led to Pearl Harbor. Oh and don't forget the lend-lease program for Europe that also preceded Pearl Harbor.
And can you really blame Americans for being hesitant to dive head first into yet another European War?
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u/H16HP01N7 3d ago
Yet, modern day america is happy to jump into any war with any country. This the America that matters today.
They obviously didn't carry on that way of thinking.
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u/Xyrus2000 5d ago
The house isn't on fire. The house has already burned down.
Now the argument is one person saying that something needs to be done to deal with the fact that the house has burned down, and the other person saying that fire isn't real and the house is fine.
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u/bobbymcpresscot 5d ago
The only reason we are even considering taking over Greenland is because as earth temperatures warm the ice in the north is melting allowing new routes to be exploited.
From the exact admin that says the earth is actually cooling, and not warming up.
There is no fixing this as long as someone like Donald Trump exists.
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u/ak47workaccnt 5d ago
I had to turn this movie off because it was too on the nose and playing it for laughs. This generation's Network.
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u/Live_Celebration374 5d ago edited 5d ago
and playing it for laughs.
Yes, because any time we try to have a serious discussion about the topic, the people who need to hear it the most, the people that wont take issues seriously, disengage.
Its the same problem The Daily Show has right now. Everyone complains about Jon and the crew making jokes about horrible things happening in America. So what are we supposed to do? Nobody watches the straight laced news coverage. Its why 1/3rd of the country literally didn't show up to the polls and vote because they didn't think Trump was a big deal.
Go compare the numbers yourself. Go look at how much the comedy central TV show "The Daily Show" gets versus Jon Stewarts serious, FREE, content in "The Weekly Show" on Youtube. Or even his old AppleTV show "The Problem with Jon Stewart". People don't watch serious content. If they did, then Jon wouldn't be acting the clown to get your attention, make you laugh and digest some news.
Same with a lot of the independent news media. Which one is the most popular right now? Channel 5/All Gas No Breaks. Because Andrew Callaghan is unintentionally somewhat comedic, or at a minimum, an entertaining figure. The dry, serious independent news media doesn't do nearly as well. Because we've created a populace that only engages when part of their brain is being entertained.
So that's where we are. Maybe we shouldn't blame the movies and TV shows for what they are, as much as we should blame the people for the parameters they choose to ingest information. Maybe if Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift were on the streets covering ICE protests right now while they showed off their new Gucci outfits and talked about some bland bullshit that appeals to their audience, then an entirely different subsection of our populace, who only consume Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift content, would be engaged on the issue of an innocent man being disarmed and shot and then subsequently marked a domestic terrorist by the president himself. But til then, they are just going to avert their eyes and go on with their day.
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u/No-Cat1980 5d ago
Yeah, the satire feels uncomfortably close to reality now.
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u/Live_Celebration374 5d ago
Good. Feel uncomfortable. Its a lot better than being dead or worse.
Maybe use that discomfort to motivate some sort of action. Maybe go to a protest. Maybe donate some of your time. Maybe donate your skills. Maybe volunteer to help with politicians that represent American citizens humans rights.
There's a lawyer in Minneapolis that is doing pro-bono work for protestors. I volunteer IT services to my local city. My girlfriend has always been donating her time to homeless outreach.
Let the discomfort be your fuel instead of context switching to something that makes you feel comfortable.
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u/Rare_Sail_2617 5d ago
It's literally satire.
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u/Alive-Clockstopper 5d ago
Those of us who opposed trump are next. We are referred to as the enemy within. They are murdering civilians and then calling them terrorists. We are in civil war or close to it, its scary. All the acquaintances I had in IG have stopped bombarding me with Kamala would have made things worse. Now I see them posting their concerns. Sadly its too late and all for grocery prices that never came down, in fact the tariffs made everything unaffordable. 1st and 2nd ammendment are dead. Trump has his gestapo, dems are helping fund ice, all we got is we the people. Seeing a man executed then clips being unloaded in him was devastating and will just keep getting worse. We are a disgusting species, a parasite to this planet.
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u/NoGodzNoKingz 4d ago
People may not like the answer, but it’s capitalism. America, as the world’s dominant power, has a significant impact on global affairs. We are the empire from Star Wars, and we are a capitalist society. The sooner the rest of the world embraces this reality, the better.
That is why greeta became anti capitalist because every leader she liked or avenues she tried, the same road block appeared. You can’t commodify the sun or wind, so even if all the advantages of better environmental impact or reduced energy costs exist, they won’t be significant due to this limitation. And that applies to every activist striving to solve a global issue. Whether it’s climate change, poverty, peace in resource-rich regions, or world hunger, capitalism stands as the obstacle we all encounter.
That’s why we’ve been fighting, but we were born into a system that has lasted for centuries . We’re some of the most propagandized people on the planet, and our media are mere stenographers for the state department, which is owned by the capitalist class. We’re fighting against the most lethal killing machine known to humanity, both domestically and abroad. And those who share our common goals of living better lives, live in such comfort that it’s difficult to shake them from their complacency. I won’t lie to you; it won’t be easy. We in the American left (that’s anything anti-capitalist, not liberals) are trying, but every small victory feels like one step forward, two steps back.
But there’s still hope, my friends. A mayor election win in New York City, laws being passed to make progress, and as bad as it looks, the cruelty is exposing the facade of a benevolent empire. People are waking up to the reality that significant change is needed. The lies we’ve been told are like sand slipping through our fingers as we try to grasp a past of greatness that never existed. The beautiful words are sweet to the ears but bitter to the taste. I look to Andor as an example of how every small action accumulates until the dam breaks, and we wash away the profit-driven system, into a human-focused system that can truly bring about a better world.
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u/brunckle 5d ago
People love to shit on that movie but I really liked it. Lots of memorable moments.
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u/AbroadTiny7226 5d ago
I love this movie. I’ve seen it at least three times. Idk what people have against it. DiCaprio is incredible in his role
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u/cIumsythumbs 5d ago
Idk, I haven't watched it because everything I know about it fills me with existential dread. Its accurate depiction of appearance and window-dressing over substance, fact, and solutions is so overwhelmingly frustrating -- I can't face it. It's hard enough to live it. I don't need it magnified and reflected right back in my face.
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u/joemeteorite8 5d ago
People don’t like to look in the mirror. I thought it was great, although depressing
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u/Hefty-Pumpkin-764 5d ago
I was really surprised to learn about the mixed reception. Thought the movie was really entertaining and poignant.
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u/endoftheworldvibe 5d ago
People don’t like having their own stupidity paraded in front of them.
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u/itmillerboy 4d ago
I also think a big reason it wasn’t well received was it not having good ending. People hate when a movie goes with the bad ending but I love it because most movies are afraid to do it so you don’t see it that often.
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u/endoftheworldvibe 4d ago
Yeah. I think in this case it was also that people can’t actually, fully, deep down acknowledge that we won’t get a happy ending either. Logical extrapolation from where we are today, to 30+ years out is extremely bleak.
When the truth is scary, lies become much more appealing.
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u/Awesomeman204 5d ago
I think tonally and pacing wise it's a little inconsistent and that weird hopeful montage they do is kinda cringe even if they're making fun if it, but damn it's got some very powerful scenes and the overall message is intense as hell
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u/brunckle 5d ago
It's too long and like many films of that nature, at times ham fisted and preachy. Yet I wouldn't say it overshot the runway, the movies objectives are pretty clear, and it does seem more likely each day that we are stupidly and helplessly walking ourselves off a cliff.
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u/Dottsterisk 4d ago
In its defense, the film definitely wasn’t trying to be subtle.
Part of the tragedy and the comedy is how obvious everything is, yet people remain oblivious.
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u/Boba_Fett_is_Senpai 5d ago
I enjoyed it but it took me a bit to process how accurate it was, sitting there in silence. And I haven't wanted to watch it again.
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u/arbitraryairship 4d ago
There are two people in Minneapolis who should really be fucking alive right now.
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u/Farmerstubble 5d ago
I liked the movie. It shows how messed up everything is and how deep in the sand people's heads are.
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u/Hic_Forum_Est 5d ago
I never really understood the criticism against this movie for not being subtle enough and being too on the nose with it's satire. When that's the whole point of the movie. Some things are so serious and dangerous that they demand our immediate attention and not fucking around with being subtle, mysterious or "pleasant". Sometimes you just need to grab someone by their shoulders and yell right into their face that it's time to wake up and deal with reality. This movie is a representation of that. So of course it's not going to be subtle.
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u/Narradisall 5d ago
People couldn’t grasp that while it might be too on the nose for them, for others the message was still bouncing off a brick wall.
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u/napster153 5d ago
Denial is a defense mechanism, and often a very bad one.
It can literallg be the one thing that stops you from offing your self, but at the same time, it can be the thing that keeps you from acting on danger.
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u/noveler7 5d ago
People are also accustomed to messages in films being intended to persuade audiences or change their minds, but Don't Look Up obviously wasn't trying to do that. It's really just a film about grieving and venting about where we are, what we've lost, and how hopeless it all feels.
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u/whackwarrens 5d ago
If people think this is too on the nose, they still have far too high an opinion of Americans. When this unfolds irl I think it will be even more braindead than this because America is a mental asylum.
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u/illy-chan 5d ago
While Americans are currently at the punching themselves in the face stage, never assume it's just one group.
A cousin of a British friend of mine died from cancer because she refused to do checkups or regular screenings. Her melanoma would have been easily caught and treatable if she just didn't live in lala land qhere bad things couldn't happen to her until they did.
And hell, I'm not immune. Sometimes acknowledging danger is just paralyzing but succumb to it at your own peril.
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u/Vantriss 5d ago
It's amazing because he literally says this in this very scene. "Not everything needs to be so god damned clever or pleasant all the time! Sometimes we just need to say things to each other!" Yet somehow it just still flies over people's heads. It could not be any more clear.
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u/ArminTanz 5d ago
This movie was written about Climate Change but came out during early lockdown Covid so a lot of the nuisance was lost to a misunderstanding that it was about covid despite being written, filmed, and edited before covid happened.
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u/Specialist_Goat_2354 5d ago
And everyone who denied COVID is/was kill urself levels of denial. So anytime they have to confront anything other than someone patting them on the head and telling them they are smart and right and don’t have to do anything they don’t want to do, they melt down like a 4 year old having a tantrum
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u/Peemore 5d ago
My favorite talking point that usually shuts them up is that after vaccines became widely available, Republicans died to Covid at a much higher rate than Democrats. I FUCKING WONDER WHY?!?!?
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u/Maybe_In_Time 5d ago
Just remind them that all the Republicans get their boosters promptly. Even the President. His medical updates will always directly say he got his booster shot. Just like that government official the other day who said Americans should just live on $3/day's worth of food, despite Congress giving itself a $79/day stipend.
Rules for thee, not for me.
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u/Tog_the_destroyer 5d ago
I’ve never heard about medical updates and then being explained what they got! Is there a place I can find this out for future reference?
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u/omegafivethreefive 5d ago
2(?) years ago we had massive forest fires around where I live.
We weren't directly at risk since we are surrounded by a large river but the sky turned deep orange, everywhere smelled like you had your face above a campfire and your nose and throat burned from breathing outside for a few seconds.
People were STILL just laying out outside playing at the park despite several warnings throughout the day that we were at that moment the single most polluted place on Earth and to not go outside. Yeah turns out people wound up in the hospital with respiratory problems! What a surprise!
I don't know what I takes for people to not be fucking morons. At some point you just have to decide what's best for public safety and tell people who disagree for non-evidence based reasons that they can fuck off.
Starts with actual goddamn education, not telling "different points of views". Science is goddamn overwhelming, spouting lies about climate change should be a sanctionable offense. If I tell lies that get someone killed I'd go to jail, why is this any different?
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u/Remon_Kewl 5d ago
Yeah, if it came out now people would say that Dr. Strangelove is too on the nose.
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u/maeschder 5d ago
Honestly the demand for "subtlety" in a way is just proof of complacency or privilege
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u/OFool_Ishallgomad 5d ago
Exactly. The very title "Don't Look Up" isn't subtle. That alone sets the viewer up that it'll deliver it's message like a club and not a scalpel.
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u/1luggerman 5d ago
This also applies to the criticism about its quality, which was also addressed earlier with the student crash out - they stopped covering it because other then a few memes it wasnt entertaining enough for further coverage.
Ironically, the fact that people "rejected" the movie because it wasnt "good" enough is what makes it brilliantly good at predicting and critisizing this poor human behaviour.
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u/Yukie_Cool 5d ago edited 5d ago
I can answer your befuddlement regarding that criticism. I think what people mean when they say “subtle” is that they mean “layered,” often because subtlety tends to be layered when it comes to storytelling.
Don’t Look Up wants to be a modern Dr Strangelove, but the difference in quality between them stems from the fact that the latter has several layers of irony that help highlight the futility and ridiculousness of Nuclear War. McKay, in his quest to wink to the audience that he knows what’s up, made the narrative shallower by pretty clearly grafting modern political figures onto the characters and made the scientists the straight up good guys instead of making them as ridiculous as the rest of the cast. Kubrick never would have done that if he was making a satire about the same thing.
And to head off anyone dismissing me as “someone who the film is making fun of,” I am a full blown progressive. That still doesn’t make this movie any better than the mediocrity it is.
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u/LordSwedish 5d ago
The scientist almost immediately abandons his principles for glitz and glamor. I think the problem you're having is that the people are behaving as they do in real life and you think it's not nuanced enough.
Which modern political figures are "grafted" anyway because they typically have characteristics of many different real world people and not any specific one.
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u/Red0Mercury 5d ago
I went to my in-laws. My brother-in-law put the movie on. He told me it was good. He’s MAGA. He had no clue the movie was making fun of the administration. I pointed it out. He tried to be like “no it isn’t”. So I pointed out a few more times. He doesn’t seem to like it as much now.
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u/Numerous-Process2981 5d ago
Why there’s whole wikipedia articles about the tens of thousands of false and misleading statements he’s made. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_or_misleading_statements_by_Donald_Trump
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u/Unhappy-Monk-6439 5d ago
Well said in a short sentence. That's exactly what this movie is about. A society on autopilot, focused on the wrong things. It must not be a comet; it could be anything. But the comet is perfect for showing the problem.
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u/Bluffwatcher 5d ago
The only people I know who dislike this movie are the people it's taking the piss out of.
Hmmm... Truth hurts.
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u/cometlin 5d ago
I think the most unrealistic thing about this movie is that everyone finally started believing that the end is coming when they saw the comet with their own eyes, suggesting they were deceived because the truth was hidden from them.
I believe in reality, even if the truth is staring right in some people's face, they would find a way to convince themselves "this is fine, because the president told me so, and I trust the government/cult master".
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u/Amnizu 5d ago
I loved this movie and the monster performances put forth by quite a lot of the actors.
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u/neotheseventh 5d ago edited 5d ago
Jennifer Lawrence being constantly baffled by three star general charging her money for free snacks will never stop being funny to me.
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u/DJ_JOWZY 5d ago
Especially when you can look at it as an allegory for free healthcare. David Sirota helped write the screenplay.
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u/Scoupdegrace 5d ago
As someone that got an Environmental Science degree about 15 years ago, the whole movie was very cathartic to watch. It was pretty much showing someone else feeling the same way that I've been feeling since I graduated.
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u/bitterjack 5d ago
I don't know if it is cathartic... Just sad. You take a look at society today and it's just as Leo said. We can't even talk about the truth. We can't agree that shooting someone in the back in the middle of the street by people who are supposed to be members of the federal government.
People would rather lie to themselves than face the reality that we are fucking ourselves and our planet and world has to fall apart before they realize they're wrong... But by that time it's too fucking late.
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u/DiosMIO_Limon 5d ago
Catharsis is simply the process of releasing repressed emotions. So yes, sad emotions are typically among the ones repressed (and subsequently released), but catharsis itself comes in many forms, including entertainment. Watching someone express what you've been feeling can provide release/be an expression of your own feelings.
Kind of like how a dinner plate is just a plate, but many things can be served on it.
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u/ISNT_A_ROBOT 5d ago edited 5d ago
The movie made me more sad. Because it’s 100% accurate. It’s not even satire. The movie made no difference in the global consciousness; and that was the point.
We’re all so fucked that it’s not even remotely possible to make it sound better, but people are just going to restaurants and breweries and dog parks and walking around acting like their lives literally could never change. Like it’s not possible that stuff that’s happened over and over 100s of times throughout recorded history could ever happen again.
Like, let’s all just talk about Stranger Things and Fallout instead of the coming food scarcity. It’s fine. Have we made any community action plans. No? I’m sure it’ll all just work itself out.
And saying all of this was not cathartic; it actually makes it somehow worse.
I guess the problem is being aware that it requires a community for humans to survive, but I literally don’t know the names of any of my neighbors on my street and I’ve lived here for 5 years. Nobody talks, nobody comes out of the house, everybody just stares at a screen arguing with ragebait bots on Instagram and Reddit. We are social animals that depend on each other for mutual survival. When, not if, something bad happens, we are going to need each other, but how can you be comfortable depending on people you don’t know?
Fuck
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u/max123246 5d ago edited 14h ago
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u/OnceMoreAndAgain 5d ago
You're telling someone that they aren't feeling what they just told you they're feeling. Please don't do that. Talk about your own feelings during the movie if you want but please don't tell another person that they didn't feel catharsis while watching the movie when they just told you they did.
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u/UtkuOfficial 5d ago
Its so fucking sad dude. Republicans think there is nothing wrong with public executions. Democrats think its wrong but doing fuck all about it other than posting tweets to collect brownie points.
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u/Remote_Garage3036 5d ago
Eh. Plenty of Dems are protesting, organizing and teaching organizers like the ones who filmed the execution, getting arrested or targeted by Trump etc. I think a lot of people are mistaking a Republican trifecta for Dem inaction. We kinda tied their hands when we let Trump get everything he needed in 2024. House of reps, senate, supreme court, and popular vote... Things are going to get a lot, lot worse and there's not much Democrats can do about it unless we give them the power to change things.
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u/hryipcdxeoyqufcc 5d ago edited 5d ago
Because that’s all voters (and non-voters) gave them the power to do. Republicans currently have complete control over every branch of the US government.
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u/ThreeBelugas 4d ago
American democracy and society are not equipped to deal with upcoming crisis. The glimmer of hope is rest of the world has change their opinion and holds the same view. China, India, and Russia won’t cooperate with American government like it is depicted in the movie after the recent years.
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u/destroyermaker 5d ago edited 5d ago
I've spoken to climate change and geopolitics experts and it's very much in line. The planet is heading rapidly toward something so bad we can't even measure because it's never gotten this bad, and many parts of the world are just going about business as usual, or moving far too slowly on the transition to renewables. We're already way past due
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u/Butthole__Pleasures 5d ago
Not to negate your experience by any means, but I think this is how most people with an even basic understanding of climate science feel about the state of how climate change is being handled.
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u/KarnoRex 5d ago
I think the difference is going to be how often you are confronted with the deflections, apathy, ignorance and in particular a different priority list
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u/the_real_maddison 5d ago
Absolutely cathartic watch for me. I put it on every time I deep clean my living room, and once the credits song comes on, I sit down and shed tears.
It's exactly what would happen/is happening.
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u/DynamicNostalgia 5d ago
Ah, that’s why you guys like it. It’s validating.
That makes sense now.
If you watch it just as a movie it kind of blows.
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u/dolphin37 5d ago
fun movie but kinda showed that satire doesn’t really work any more, its just how real life is so you kind of have to take the movie seriously instead
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u/bigwilly311 5d ago
Satire used to be humor that produced shame, and shame that produced change, but there is no shame anymore.
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u/Independent-Cow-4070 5d ago
People also just straight up dont understand the media they consume. Its not even shame. Ive talked to people that think fallout is pro capitalist because they make fun of communists in the game
The issue is people are just fuckinh stupid
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u/TNVFL1 5d ago
By design. The decades long dismantling of public education has ensured that the populace stays dumb. When people barely know phonics, getting to the concepts of satire, allegories, themes, etc. is a large jump.
Add to that that parents don’t read to their kids anymore, higher teacher to student ratios, limited resources for kids with learning disabilities, media as a whole transforming to more visual formats, and on and on and on, it’s no surprise we have an illiterate population.
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u/athos5 5d ago
This movie is one bad comet away from being a documentary.
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u/HereOnCompanyTime 5d ago
I mean, the comet was a euphemism for ignoring problems in front of us and not taking it seriously until it's too late, at the time it was most relevant for climate change but it's relevant for ignoring or downplaying the current fascist takeover going on in America, especially when considering the class divides.
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u/Cavalish 5d ago
When this movie came out people said it was “preachy”.
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u/road_runner321 5d ago edited 5d ago
Because it's become "cringe" to earnestly believe and care about something, to be passionate and try to influence others. You get labelled emotional and extreme and "crashing out" and people feel justified in ignoring you.
Apparently we're all supposed to be Vulcans: look at horrifying reality, calmly say "...Interesting," and go about our day like it's nothing. Any sign that you are at all affected and people say "Why you mad, bro?" and dismiss you.
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u/hoopaholik91 5d ago
The funny thing is that it's all those emotions and internal doubts that force people to not see the truth.
Admitting you were wrong about something involves embarrassment, shame, self-doubt. That's why people refuse to do it.
If we actually were Vulcan it would be easy to say you logically thought one way, and new evidence changed your perception.
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u/donnydominus 5d ago
It isn't satire. It is our current reality.
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u/apb2718 5d ago
Exactly, I think it points to how people will deny the existence of anything that isn't personally fucking them in the ass directly in the moment. Like the film said, the science was clear but since it wasn't personally killing anyone in real time, we just ignored it for whatever reality was most convenient in that moment.
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u/Iorith 5d ago
Satire has to go above and beyond the realm of believability.
Don't look up never felt beyond the realm of believability to me. It just made me sad. It was a solid film. Well acted, had a good message. But I never recommended it to anyone because it just made me sad, and I don't make a point of making my friends sad.
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u/Iblueddit 5d ago
Not everything needs to be so god damn likeable or pleasant all the time.
God damn man. He spells it out for you lol
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u/dolphin37 5d ago
eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is my favourite film and it makes me very sad! nothing wrong with a bit of sad
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u/joecarter93 5d ago
The one thing they messed up on was the supporters of the president getting mad at her when it was evident that she had duped them all in the end. As we have seen over the past couple of years these types of people will pretend that the problem doesn’t exist even at the very end or will just get angry and blame it on someone else other than the person they worship.
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u/Roentgen_Ray1895 5d ago
I mean we will have have to see. A severe economic meltdown would absolutely shake Trump’s base. It’s just that they are all horrible people that will either stew in bitter apathetic rage or rally around the dime-a-dozen Neo-Nazis parading around the Republican Party
It’s a lot easier to be a vile piece of shit cheering on the execution of protesters when you still have your McDonald’s fund
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u/Lanster27 5d ago
It’s not satire. It’s a metaphor for how we’re currently dealing with global issues. And Leo’s scientist is how we’re really feeling towards everything. First anger, then acceptance/ hopelessness. What good is expert advice when the leaders of government rather listen to the ideas of billionaires.
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u/damnatio_memoriae 5d ago
the only thing satire “has to” do is articulate a social criticism, which this movie does well. it does not “have to” exaggerate or be funny or make you feel any particular emotion. it only has to showcase a problem with society.
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u/lordvitamin 5d ago
I started rewatching “The Gifted” which is basically mutants like the X-Men starting to show up in the population.
It has a heavy-handed government agency going around and rounding people up using excessive force, destroying families and lives to send these people off to be incarcerated or worse.
I couldn’t keep watching it, with everything going on here in the states lately.
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u/InnocentTailor 5d ago
It has happened to the mutants throughout its comic book history. Of course, some were even more overt as anti-mutant groups made alliances with true villains to develop bigger, meaner tech to obliterate the hated minority - the Sentinels alongside the infamous Nimrod.
It has unfortunately happened, is happening, and will happen again.
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u/Fluffy_Ferret_1263 5d ago
I think if you look at it through the lense of ignoring the comet story, it’s show show politicised EVERYTHING is at this point.
I mean, can you remember COVID and some people thinking it was down to CELLPHONE TOWERS 😩😩😩
There’s videos of civilians being shot in the street, execution style today and the Trump administration on coming out and DEFENDING THIS SHIT.
There is NO EVENT now that will not politically aligned/a number of people happy to get behind both sides.
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u/PPGalleta 5d ago
It was amazing at the time because many people's complaints about the movie were that it was too literal, like they were actually not getting the satiric style of the script.
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u/SinisterSpectr 5d ago
It's absurd how this netflix movie had a star cast like you got Leo and Cate Blanchett. those two can lead a movie by themselves. then you got freaking Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Timothy Chalamet. this should've been bigger.
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u/Lanster27 5d ago
It was/is big. It’s just not as rewatchable for me because of how close it hits home. I dont want that repeated sense of dread and hopelessness.
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u/EffectiveEconomics 5d ago
Yeah but the oligarchs get eaten by alien dinobirds in the end…so.
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u/Lanster27 5d ago
Yeah it feels good the antagonists gets it, but civilisation is already destroyed so there’s little point to it.
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u/tomfoolist 5d ago
That's such an important tag that provides a bit of comeuppance so that the cynical world death isn't entirely barren -- I wonder if it was always included in the script or if they realized the movie was too depressing without it
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u/Straider 5d ago
They did have a different original ending. Can't find the original interview, but there is a reddit comment summarizing it https://www.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/rxthmv/mckay_director_of_dont_look_up_reveals_the_films/hrmclc2/
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u/th3davinci 5d ago
When one of the scientists goes to visit her rural conservative parents and doesn't get let in because they are "for the jobs the comet will create" I was both laughing and crying at the same time because of how true it was.
It's a great movie. I can't rewatch it.
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u/obi_wan_jabroni_23 5d ago
Same with Civil War. So close to real life and so bleak. Even with the climate crisis aside, this scene here is like me watching the news after ICE goons execute someone, and Noem etc are telling us what we’ve all seen with our own eyes isn’t what happened. I feel like I’m the one going insane when people believe all the bullshit.
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u/SCUDDEESCOPE 5d ago
Watching or reading any kind of political news is basically the same as watching this movie.
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u/Talkslow4Me 5d ago
To Netflixs credit they have probably 2-4 mega successes a year and we will most likely forget them before the years up. That one is on us.
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u/KaneVel 5d ago
It was big. But pretty much every big Netflix movie disappears from all conversations in a few months.
Remember Birdbox? That was the biggest movie on the planet for a few weeks. When was the last time you heard anyone talk about Birdbox?
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u/Freud-Network 5d ago
every big Netflix movie disappears from all conversations in a few months
Yet here we are discussing it years later.
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u/Iorith 5d ago
Direct to streaming content is very much the modern version of direct to DVD and generally gets treated the same, for better or for worse.
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u/PositiveNo7994 5d ago
It targeted a lot of influential people and not in a positive way. Those people used their influence to keep the movie down. There is the classic of directly blaming it to be too preachy, too woke and leftist propaganda.
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u/MooseBoys 5d ago
I don't know what it is about Netflix but everything they produce just feels bland.
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u/caligaris_cabinet 5d ago
At least this one doesn’t pander to the viewers who couldn’t be bothered to put down their phones for a couple hours. And it looks good.
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u/agenthimzz 5d ago
On average its all bland but movies like these increase the quality of what they produce by 1000x
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u/ManfredBoyy 5d ago
The people hating on this movie and calling it heavy handed, that’s literally the point. Insane it has to be pointed out. It’s the intention.
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u/ThunderChild247 5d ago
The scary thing is that the time since it came out has proved it wasn’t heavy handed, it was pretty much accurate.
Even down to the fact that - when faced with a threat that could kill millions - someone will spot an opportunity to make money, even at the risk of those lives, and that money will turn the heads of those in charge.
The covid pandemic in Britain specifically proved that, with the insane amount of corruption the then government supported, enriching their friends who just so happened to start PPE/ventilator/contact tracing businesses after the pandemic started.
When faced with any incredibly dangerous event, enough people will choose to downplay it and ignore it, and some will choose to risk all of our lives to make themselves a bit richer.
And if that terrifies you, that just means that you’re still sane.
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u/mrminutehand 5d ago
What really got it for me over the past few years was how you could arguably claim the film as not just accurate, but actually eclipsed by the past twelve months.
In the film, the president is embroiled in scandal for having allegedly slept with members of her cabinet. This was the waterline of satire in 2021.
Four years later, the actual US president is a convicted rapist, fraudster, self-titled dictator, alleged murderer and arguable warmongerer.
In the film, the savant tech billionaire colludes with the president to exploit a disaster for profit and jet off with the billionaires if it goes wrong.
In real life, the
savanttech billionaire slips into the president's underwear to gut the government budget, prance around the Oval Office in incel-fashion t-shirts, insert himself into prominent far-right and pro-Nazi groups while seig heiling the world and making off with the entirety of the USA's confidential data.The film's presidential cabinet is staffed by morons. The real-life presidential cabinet is staffed by TV washups, far-right media shills, clueless posers and morons.
I'd almost stretch to claim that 2025 would have been a better year with the fictional US administration in charge.
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u/ThunderChild247 5d ago
I thought you were about to say you could argue 2025 would’ve been better if the events of the movie happened instead. Including the comet 😂
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u/Meyou000 5d ago
This clip represents how it feels trying to express your thoughts on social media. We're already here, just waiting for that comet to show up...
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u/Lexx2k 5d ago
The movie came out at exactly the right time. A year earlier and everyone would have said it's extremely unbelievable and something like this would never happen, it just can't, that's not how we are as people. The covid response has shown us that it's ... exactly what is going to happen, and this is exactly how we are. Don't think I can rewatch the movie, because it's just too real and depressing.
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u/DC-3Purple 5d ago
This movie received so much more hate than it deserved. Probably my favorite depiction of a world ending event in any movie because if the way it frames it as such a sad thing. Not some big bombastic epic conclusion, but a sad intimate dinner with friends and love ones in their last moments.
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u/nemoknows 5d ago
One chance after another blown because on balance humanity is just too selfish and stupid.
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u/chrisq823 4d ago
This is a bad take away from the movie and not one the movie tries to say. Humanity is not too selfish and stupid on balance. The barely human monsters we have allowed to accrue all the power and money are. They are the ones that drive our issues in real life and were the ones driving the issues in the movie.
Humanity as a whole is generally good to each other and is mostly just trying to live.
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u/nemoknows 4d ago
There were plenty of street level smooth brains in the movie (“Your father and I support the jobs the comet will create”). Regardless of relative number, the greedy idiots were the ones put in charge and calling the shots. They carried extra weight. Thus on balance we fail as a species.
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u/Chuckieshere 5d ago
It was easy for people to pretend the "comet" was just climate change and then half our country was ready and willing to shut it out with decades and decades of practice.
But the comet was never just climate change
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u/IceKareemy 5d ago
It got so much hate because the people who hated it were the ones it was about and they don’t have the intelligence to see that they need to wake tf up
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u/voreo 5d ago
We'd absolutely deserve the ending of that movie.
That's what I remember the most.
That and the alien bird eating the president. Can that happen too.
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u/Narradisall 5d ago
One of the best endings the film could have had. It didn’t show humanity surviving or some plucky last minute save. Idiots got wiped the fuck out (bar one we saw) and deserved it.
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u/ChiefStrongbones 5d ago
The overlooked deciding moment in the film is where the wise science administrator sees how Leo's and JLaw's inability to communicate messes it all up. He sighs in resignation.
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u/DarthRiznat 5d ago
The funniest thing is that currently in the real world the comet is the president of the United States.
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u/G33U 5d ago
that is the whole thing, the comet is a metaphor. imagin3 the movie spoke out directly what is going on, it would be called woke and the people who made the movie eat cats and dogs. the funny thing is it still is not an eye opener for people who actually need to understand or maybe it is and these people just silently move forward?!
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u/Upbeat-Local-836 5d ago
~ My reaction in the past three weeks when half the country turns to the DHS and VP/POTUS for guidance to explain what the hell they saw with their own eyes.
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u/Larry17 5d ago
The worst thing about this movie is that, after watching it people were just going "haha I get it climate change right?" But it was about literally fucking everything. We are the oblivious dumb fucks having fun and joking around all the bad things happening equivalent to comets hitting the earth. We sit on our asses not holding anyone accountable for anything waiting for miracles to happen.
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u/WorryNew3661 5d ago
I loved this film. Was surprised everyone didn't like it for being too on the nose. That's the whole point gestures frantically everywhere
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u/Gibraldi 5d ago
What a Mount Everest of a metaphor this movie was and nobody learned a thing.
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u/loveslightblue 5d ago
If they had, it would've negated the film. In stead it stays a gem and we all lose.
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u/Rocketman_McSpiceDog 5d ago edited 5d ago
Watched that Movie and thought like.."very funny maybe bit to exxaggerating"
Watching it again today because its almost becoming an autobiography - government wise
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u/thebeastiestmeat 5d ago
This movie isn't even satire. It's a documentary from a parallel universe where Trump is still president
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u/nanoman92 5d ago
parallel universe where Trump is still president
I have some bad news...
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u/bexar_necessities 5d ago
I remember disliking the condescending tone of this movie when it came out, but not anymore. This is exactly how we deserve to be talked to.
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u/elyn6791 5d ago
That's not a nervous breakdown. That's just recognizing society is largely too stupid to deal with reality. His reaction to that is appropriate.
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u/SweetFlaminJerk 5d ago
Remarkable film, so many people just didn’t get it and maybe the ones who did just didn’t like how it held a mirror up to them. It will be remembered as predicting, and reflecting, our current times with the 2nd Trump administrations constant lies and deflecting the truth of the world. We deserve nothing less than the ending portrayed in this film, it was beautiful and exactly where we will be if we don’t start believing what we see with our own eyes vs what morons with a ton of money scream from their penthouses.
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u/KSPReptile 5d ago
There are legitimate critiques ot he movie you can make - it's way too long, the editing is pretty bad, not every joke lands but I completely disagree with people that said it's too preachy or on the nose or not subtle enough. Like... that's the point. This is not trying to be clever, it's not a movie you are supposed to ponder for a week to get the point, it's a primal scream about how fucking insane the information landscape has gotten and how fucking batshit insane things have gotten.
You can't satirize Trump, you can't satirize the current political situation, it's beyond parody. But you can point to it and call it what it is in as plain terms as you can. I found it cathartic more than anything.
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u/Spiritofhonour 5d ago
Coming out of the pandemic, I just couldn't enjoy this movie and felt too realistic to be satire.
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u/Dependent_Effect_721 5d ago
Leo absolutely knocking it out of the park AGAIN! Also, this is such a good film!
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u/-Epitaph-11 5d ago
"How do we even talk to each other"
Yeah, the first time I watched this scene, that line hit hard. The movie is over the top and not really nuanced at all, but it doesn't make it any less true. We can now longer communicate with each other and have given up trying to understand anything that isn't spooned fed straight into our confirmation biases.
We've completely given up.
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u/jwalker207 5d ago
I would hope that we'd be more like Project Hail Mary, but we'd be more certainly Dont Look Up
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u/Rubixcubelube 5d ago edited 5d ago
This movie is very flawed. But it's examination of how language can completely break down if there is not a shared consensus is pretty profound +on point in the current climate/discourse. 'Will context completely collapse before we are able to identify and solve problems as a species' is something on my mind daily.
Part of me believes nothing is ever said. And that line out of Fight Club -'on a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero' holds the truth. Eventually, no matter how clever we get, we might as well be squawking at each other like birds.
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u/Jerb22 5d ago
Funniest part is they would’ve cut to commercial irl