``Don't Look Up'' Is there no hope for ``Armageddon'' anymore? 2020's surreal disaster comedy

The coronavirus pandemic is stranger than a comet impact

McKay's previous films, " The Big Short " and " Vice ," were films that attempted to explore modern society through real events. However , "Don't Look Up" is a film that is so fictional that it brings to light a reality that is so thin that it is no longer possible to explore it. Many viewers will likely see the events depicted in the film as being similar to the COVID-19 pandemic that has been raging since 2020.

However, McKay began planning this film in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. McKay had wanted to make a film on the theme of climate change (global warming), and had come up with several ideas, but none of them came to fruition, which led him to this film , "Don't Look Up."

McKay revealed that he had started writing the script before the COVID-19 pandemic, but was forced to rewrite it due to the pandemic. "The COVID-19 pandemic made me realize that the reality of the comet's denial was 10 times worse than in the movie. I wrote that the comet would cause tax cuts, and then Trump really did cut taxes because of COVID," the director said. Because reality caught up with the script in a completely unintended way, he had to rewrite it to be more comedic and ridiculous. Ultimately, the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the film's portrayal of reality.

"Don't Look Up" NIKO TAVERNISE/NETFLIX

As an aside, McKay also acknowledged that writing the script during the COVID-19 pandemic helped him assemble such an all-star cast: "It's a script about the terrible times we live in. A lot of the actors were asking for a book like this because, whether you're on the right or the left, we're all stuck in this chaos," he said, and the actors delivered a relaxed performance rarely seen in other films.

Some have pointed out that this film depicts real society so directly that the satire is too easy to understand compared to Adam McKay's previous works. However, the fact that McKay, a master of comedy and a master of vividly illustrating true stories, had to depict reality so directly and unashamedly, and that he therefore adopted the style of a "comedy that is hard to laugh at," should indicate the tense situation in the real world.

In the film, Mindy and DiBiaski protest the approach of the comet and take part in the "Just Look Up" campaign, while politicians and opponents fight back with the phrase "Don't Don't Look Up is flying, looking at instead? In a way, the fact that this film is being distributed on Netflix, where you can watch videos anytime, anywhere, is perhaps the biggest irony that Adam McKay has set up...or so I think.

[References]

Adam McKay on His Enduring Love for Will Ferrell and the “Insane” State of the World: “I'm Fully Freaked Out” – The Hollywood Reporter

Adam McKay Has Become the Grown-Up in the Room. He's as Surprised as You Are – GQ

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence & Adam McKay on 'Don't Look Up' and the Politicization of Science - Collider

・A Comedy Nails the Media Apocalypse – The New York Times

Text: Takatoshi Inagaki

Writer/editor/dramaturg. His writing activities span across fields such as movies, dramas, comics, theater, and art. Contributes to theater programs such as the movies ``Tenet'' and ``Joker,'' edits web media, edits exhibition catalogs, and appears on radio. Major stage works include dramaturg for PARCO's productions of ``Kengyo Yabuhara'', Tristone Entertainment's ``Shoujo Kamen'', prosthetic assistant for Kinoshita Kabuki's ``Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan'', ``Sannin Kichizo'', ``Kanjincho'', and KUNIO's ``Greeks''. ”Literature.

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Netflix movie "Don't Look Up"

Released in select theaters on Friday, December 10th

Available worldwide on Netflix from Friday, December 24th