Best Picture nominee #2 here. I like Adam McKay as a writer/director—I thought both The Big Short and Vice were fascinating—and I like a lot of the people in the cast, but this one shook out to be more “just fine” for me.
When astronomy PhD candidate Kate goes in to log some telescope time, she finds something she doesn’t expect: evidence of a new comet. Her professor, Randall, and her fellow students celebrate her discovery… until Randall calculates that the comet is on a direct course to collide with/destroy all life on Earth. The science is clear—unless decisive action is taken immediately, humanity only has about six months left to live. Unfortunately, between agenda-driven politicians, a skeptical media, and an easily-distracted public, no one seems to care.
Afterwards, I looked up the film’s production to check the timing. While it was conceived and written before the pandemic (inspired largely by climate change,) pre-production was halted when COVID hit in March of 2020, and I imagine certain elements of the story were changed/added to specifically mirror our current situation. And it is bleak. Politicians whose interest in averting global annihilation is contingent on their polling numbers for midterms, a news media concerned that warnings of impending extinction don’t generate as much traffic as a lovers’ spat between recording artists, and a huge chunk of the public content to disbelieve the science they’re being told, even once the evidence is literally visible to the naked eye. After the events of the last two years, I can honestly say that the film does not exaggerate how a catastrophe like this would very possibly go.
Unfortunately, the film’s satirical elements are pitched in such a way that they actually undermine that notion. For example, the crude, flaky, Trumpy president is actually no less outrageous than the former president himself, but the way her scenes are played and framed, they seem larger-than-life and improbable. Just in general, a lot of the humor feels kind of forced and weird.
The film also doesn’t really have any of the stylistic flourishes that McKay’s previous Oscar contenders did, which is a shame. The cutaways, fourth-wall-breaking moments, and sly commentary made those recent-history pieces feel really alive and engaging. In contrast, this fictional story satirizing a very tangible issue feels flat, lacking in spark.
That’s not to say there’s nothing redeeming about the film. I think McKay really nails social media culture, with the way Randall and Kate are memed (of course the term “AILF”—the astronomer answer to DILF—is coined for Randall) and reactions to the comet are expressed largely through Internet challenges. There are moments where the humor does hit well, especially in Kate’s ongoing preoccupation with something that’s super small in the grand scheme of things, but it’s so bizarre that she can’t let it go. Still, this isn’t one that I feel really merits its Best Original Screenplay nod.
Despite the appearance of the very-good Rob Morgan (who I loved in Just Mercy) and a few other small roles, this is pretty thoroughly in “look at all our white people!” territory. As Randall and Kate, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence fare reasonably well, although this feels like middling roles for both of them. Mark Rylance does a nice job as an eccentric tech billionaire, and I enjoy Jonah Hill’s energy as a nepotistic chief of staff. Meanwhile, Meryl Streep really doesn’t do it for me as the president—like I said, her scenes are just pitched in such a weird way, in terms of both framing and performance, that it doesn’t work. Cate Blanchett and Ron Perlman’s characters aren’t interesting enough to warrant their casting, Melanie Lynskey (who I’ll always remember from Heavenly Creatures) is completely wasted, and I have no idea why Timothée Chalamet is even in the movie.
Warnings
Strong thematic elements, language, sexual content/nudity, drinking/smoking/drug/use, and scenes of violence.
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