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Don’t Look Up (2021)

Netflix’s Don’t Look Up is one of the most talked about films of recent months thanks to the cast which is packed with A-listers. Adam McKay’s dark comedy follows a research team followed by Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) who discover that a huge comet is heading straight for Earth and will destroy it within a matter of months. Mindy and researcher, Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) head to the White House to convince the President (Meryl Streep) to destroy the comet before it hits the planet. With plenty of storylines and characters, Don’t Look Up is a film that has garnered polarising reviews with some loving the message on climate change while others feel that the execution falls short.

The film is directed and written by Adam McKay, whose previous efforts include 2018’s Vice and 2015’s The Big Short which combine politics and comedy. McKay is interested in recent political events and Don’t Look Up is his take on climate change. What made The Big Short and Vice so effective is that they had a tighter focus on a few characters so the films had a better flow in terms of the writing and direction. Don’t Look Up is a film that is filled with the world’s biggest stars and McKay clearly wants to give everyone a fair share of screentime. Unfortunately, the result of which seems to be a who’s who of Hollywood and the writing is crammed with too many storylines that it seems jilted in structure. It feels like the screenplay needed to go through an extra draft to finesse the story and ensure that the film has a better flow.

Jennifer Lawrence plays researcher, Kate Dibiasky, who is credited with discovering the comet, which is suitably named Dibiasky Comet. Dibiasky appears to be the voice of reason throughout the film although doesn’t have the skills to communicate her view properly which angers the authorities. Lawrence’s performance is perfect as she captures Kate’s feelings of despair and her outspoken nature. It’s great seeing Lawrence and DiCaprio act opposite one another and it feels like Lawrence actually steals the show thanks to the amount of depth that she brings to the performance. Don’t Look Up allows us to see Lawrence in a different kind of comical role that we haven’t seen from her before and she delivers.

In the male leading role is Leonardo DiCaprio who portrays research leader, Dr. Randall Mindy. As always, DiCaprio can be relied upon to give a great performance which he does but it does feel as though his character isn’t given much to play with in the same way that Dibiasky is. There are certain decisions that McKay made for the character which seem a bit confusing such as having Randall embark on an affair with news reporter, Brie (Cate Blanchett) which doesn’t add a lot to the overall plot while taking up a lot of time. What is confusing about this development is that it contrasts to everything else we learn about Randall and the way he lives his life. His affair seems to show that he is just as bad and sleazy as the authorities who want to mine the comet for minerals. Despite this, DiCaprio does a great job with what he’s given.

The supporting cast is absolutely huge and is led by none other than Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill as President Janie Orlean and her son, Jason Orlean, who is also Chief of Staff, respectively. Having Streep playing a President was bound to happen sooner or later, but rather than be a reliable source of wisdom and leadership, Janie Orlean is manipulative and power and money-hungry, seeing the comet as a money-making opportunity rather than a threat. Jason also proves himself to be extremely under-qualified for his role and has clearly gotten to where he is thanks to nepotism. The role of Janie Orlean feels a bit underwhelming in terms of development, which is a shame when you have Meryl Streep in the role while Jonah Hill is clearly given the chance to improvise and do what his does best – insult people within an inch of their lives in a hilarious way.

Don’t Look Up is a film that wears its message on its sleeve, but the execution falls a bit short due to the screenplay, which tends to flit around a lot. McKay has proven that he can work with an ensemble task and has even won an Oscar for his screenplay for The Big Short, but the magic he creates blending comedy and politics seems a bit lost amongst all the characters. It feels as though some storylines don’t blend well with each other, which may be the reason it has had such polarising opinions. This isn’t to say that Don’t Look Up is a film without its positives, however, as Jennifer Lawrence provides an excellent performance and Jonah Hill is a comedic standout in a role that feels like a classic Hill performance but it’s a film that should have been more consistent in it’s storytelling.

What did you think of Don’t Look Up? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Don’t Look Up is available to watch on Netflix now!

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91st Academy Awards – Technical Awards

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My last blog on this year’s Oscars concludes with the Technical awards. This year has seen a huge number of large scale blockbusters that heavily use CGI to achieve their vision as well as smaller films that rely on using what they have. Both methods take imagination and it’s great to see films recognised across this spectrum.
Just in case you want to read my other blogs on this year’s Oscars, I’ll put the links below here:
Acting Awards
Creative Awards – Part 1
Creative Awards – Part 2
Creative Awards – Part 3
Here is my roundup of this year’s technology award winners!

Best Visual Effects
It seemed that Black Panther was the favourite to take this award home but the team for Neil Armstrong biopic First Man won. I feel that this film was deeply overlooked in various categories, particularly sound editing and this one throughout awards season but to see it recognised for its terrifically executed effects was deserved. I don’t think I have ever felt so claustrophobic watching a film before but this film managed to accomplish this from the first scene. Although the cast was the main talking point for this film on its release, I think that the visual effects were the standout feature of this film.

Best Sound Editing
I was happy to see First Man nominated in this category but given that it was up against box office smash Bohemian Rhapsody, I knew that it would lose. Personally, I feel that First Man should have taken this home but Bohemian Rhapsody is a film that relies heavily on its sound editing. I think that First Man used sound in a way that I hadn’t expected or seen before.


Best Sound Mixing
Again, Bohemian Rhapsody was the expected winner here and didn’t disappoint. I was happy with the win considering how they utilised mixing the Rami Malek’s vocals with Freddie’s so it wasn’t simply a case of Malek lip syncing his way through the film. It helped enhance Malek’s amazing performance and I think the win in this category was thoroughly deserved.

Best Editing
A lot of wins for Bohemian Rhapsody in the categories in this blog and this is the one of the film’s wins that I strongly disagreed with personally. I think that my main problem with the film as a whole was its editing. There were scenes that consisted of numerous cuts that made the film jittery. The film on the whole doesn’t flow well because it is badly paced and the editing is one of the main contributors to this problem. I thought that Hank Corwin should have won this category for his brilliant editing in Vice. It was innovative and unexpected, keeping the audience in a state of discomfort as we didn’t know what would happen next. The editing in Vice reflected the erratic nature of its subject and I think it conveys this fantastically.

Best Cinematography
Without a shadow of a doubt, this was Alfonso Cuaron’s for the taking and he won it completely deservedly for Roma. He manages to convey the problems of a Mexican classist society by keeping the focus solely on protagonist Cleo. Cleo becomes an embodiment of the working class female and the struggles of living a life that seems to be against her. Her story is told in black and white but the film is anything but. It teeters on a spectrum of emotions as we see Cleo in her darkest moments as well as her happier times as she navigates a pregnancy. Cleo’s friendship with her employer is beautifully conveyed as well as the two women bond over their mutual struggles.

That’s it for my Oscars roundup! What did you think of this year’s ceremony? Leave your comments below!

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91st Academy Awards – Creative Awards (Part 2)

Continuing my roundup of this year’s Oscars, I will be discussing more of the Creative awards handed out on Sunday night. In my first blog I spoke about the acting awards (here) and the following posts looked at the creative awards (here). The array of topics from the winners and nominees show just how varied this year has been internationally. Without further ado, here’s my take on Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short, Best Short Documentary, Best Documentary, Best Animated Feature and Best Foreign Film.

Best Animated Short Film

It was obvious that this gong would go to Pixar short Bao. The first Pixar short created by women, it tells the story of a mother-son relationship between a woman and a dumpling. It is a beautiful metaphor that shows the ups and downs of family life as Bao grows up and eventually starts to make questionable life choices. This film wasn’t for everyone and it’s understandable why but I loved it and thought it was a very touching and maternal piece of work. It brought something new to the table at Pixar, whose repertoire as of late has consisted of sequels and prequels and showed why audiences fell in love with it in the first place by injecting the passion and originality voiced by the animators and artists who work there.

Best Live Action Short

The winner of this award was Skin, a story of modern day racism in American which follows a Neo-Nazi who is kidnapped by a group of African Americans after organising a racial attack of his own and he is then tattooed completely black. The win in this category shows the importance to tell stories about the racial divide that still exists today.

Best Short Documentary

Nothing felt better for my feminist heart than seeing a crowd of women fill the stage to accept an Oscar for a film about menstruation. Period. End of Sentence explores women living in India whose education had been cut short due to their periods due to a lack of access to sanitary pads. A group of women team up and begin to manufacture sanitary pads so young girls and women can go to school and worship at temples. It is a brilliant insight into global inequality and puts to rest the patriarchal belief that gender equality exists. It also opens the gate for non-white female filmmakers to talk about subjects that are considered taboo in the same vein as Pakistani filmmaker, Sharmeen Obaid whose film, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness that explores the so-called honour killings in her home country previously won an Oscar in the same category three years ago. The bravery that these women have to exploit these issues shows how powerful the medium of film is in communicating these topics to a society that tends to cover it’s ears to the problem.

Best Documentary

Free Solo follows rock climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to free climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The filming itself proved to be a challenge as the production team had to ensure that Honnold was in no way hindered by bulky microphones or other film equipment. To do this they had a sound technician who knew how to rock climb and climbed alongside him. This is shows real innovation in filmmaking and brings a unique angle on this story rather than just having cameras at the top and bottom of the mountain.

Best Animated Feature

This year saw a welcome departure from the usual Disney win with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse winning the gong. It proved to be hugely popular mainly due to its inclusiveness in narrative as well as the animation itself which differs from the usual large-eyed computer animation that we have become accustomed to. This year also saw Wes Anderson’s return to animation with Isle of Dogs which was absolutely brilliant. Although not as strong as Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs gave the most star-studded cast from any of this year’s films and injected it into a tale about the love between a young boy and his dog.

Best Foreign Film

This category was one of the big competitions of the night. The pundits rightly put their money on Mexico’s entry, Roma, but it would be wrong to ignore the ferociously strong competition from Poland’s Cold War and Japan’s Palme d’Or winning Shoplifters. This year was a tremendous year for international film and I think Roma’s popularity specifically proves that mainstream audiences want to see non-English language films. There’s been a lot of debate on whether Roma should even qualify for awards season given that it is a Netflix film but I personally feel that using streaming it on Netflix means that millions of people will have a chance to watch a film that they may not ordinarily watch. I do think this debate played apart to its loss in the Best Picture race as I feel that the Academy may have felt that the Best Foreign Film win would suffice; however, there is no doubt that Roma was one of the most discussed films of the year and it won’t easily be forgotten.

That’s it for my second Creative awards roundup. My next post will look at the last batch of Creative awards: best song, best score, best costume design, best makeup and best Production design.

What do you think of the winners? Do you agree? Let me know in the comments below!

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91st Academy Awards – Acting Awards

So Sunday night was the 91st Academy Awards and as usual, I stayed up for them so suffice to say I am still recovering!

The night was full of expected wins (here’s looking at you “Shallow”) and even more surprises. Given that there is a lot of debate regarding the awards (particularly the Best Picture winner Green Book), I thought I would give my opinion on some of the awards. In this post, I will be discussing the acting awards.

Best Supporting Actress
By this point in awards season, it appeared to be Regina King’s Oscar to lose and she didn’t disappoint, claiming the Best Supporting Actress gong for her nuanced turn in Barry Jenkins’s brilliant adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk. It was a performance that allowed King to shine as the matriarch who is determined to fight for justice for her daughter’s partner in jail. It was nice to see this film recognised because it was wrongly snubbed in major categories including Best Picture which had rightly caused a furore on social media.

This category was full of strong competition, particularly from Rachel Weisz’s incredible performance as Lady Sarah in The Favourite. She had won the BAFTA a couple of weeks ago and personally, she would have been my first choice for the award. That being said, it is wonderful seeing King being recognised in film after a long absence from the big screen.

Best Supporting Actor
Much like King, this was Mahershala Ali’s for the taking. Having won the same award two years ago for his stellar turn in Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, his acting talents are still very much fresh in Hollywood’s mind and he continued his winning streak as the genius Dr Shirley in feel-good piece Green Book. Admittedly, I didn’t really get on with this film as a whole (I will explain more later) but the performance Mahershala gives cannot be ignored nor his win argued. He is brilliant playing the pianist touring the deep south chauffered by Tony, a white New York Italian security guard who proves to be Dr Shirley’s polar opposite performed brilliantly by Viggo Mortensen. Ali brings such an elegance and grace to his performance showcasing the struggle of Dr Shirley.
Having swept every supporting actor award, this was one of the expected wins; however, I can’t not mention Richard E. Grant who has been charming the globe with his enthusiasm this season and bringing a much needed injection of joy that the film industry needs during the politically turbulent backdrop. That being said, Mahershala was my choice to win and he has continued to cement his status as one of the greats.

Best Leading Actor
Like the two previous awards, this gong also had a clear frontrunner in the form of Rami Malek for his performance of Freddie Mercury in the audience favourite Bohemian Rhapsody. I have been a fan of Rami’s since his supporting turn in The Master and knew it was only a matter of time before he achieved even more success which came from his appearances on TV in Mr Robot. His performance as Freddie was clearly no easy feat as the film had a very troubled production due to allegations against director Bryan Singer. I have to be honest, I wasn’t a fan of the film as a whole. I wish I loved it because I am a huge fan of Queen and Malek but the script was poor and pacing was all over the place. I do believe that it is Malek’s performance that carries the whole film and the charisma that made it so enjoyable for audiences.

I do think that while this performance was a huge hit with critics and audiences, there were other performances in the same category that I feel were more deserving. I also feel that we’re going to see Malek in even better roles in the future. Personally, my vote would have gone to Bradley Cooper for his performance as fading country star Jackson Maine in his directorial debut, A Star is Born. Not only is it his best performance to date, it is a turn that proves how timeless the film’s plot is while discussing current themes in the 21st century.

Best Leading Actress
My favourite category of the night (pun intended). The best surprise of the night saw Olivia Colman win for her portrayal of Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’ phenomenal The Favourite. I can’t even begin to explain how much I enjoyed this film. It was flawless in every way from the script to the make-up and of course, the cast particularly the three leading ladies (Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone). Olivia was my pick for the gong the whole way through awards season. As much as I love Glenn Close, I felt that giving her the award would be more of a celebration of her entire career rather than her performance in The Wife specifically. Of course, Close doesn’t ever put a foot wrong, there’s a reason why she has led such a successful career but this felt that it was more about her previous Oscar losses in the past. What was even better was Colman’s reaction and speech. She was clearly just as shocked as everyone else at her win but she showed exactly why she has captured everyone’s heart. It’s so wonderful to think that “Sophie from Peep Show” has become a Hollywood Leading Lady.

Now as I said, Colman was my choice for this award. She is flawless in every role she takes whether it is a small British sitcom or a big Hollywood film. She brings a nuanced humour that also has a depth to it and makes even the smallest character three dimensional. I am so excited to see what she does next. I am also certain that Glenn’s big Oscar moment will come eventually and it will be for a performance as memorable as Fatal Attraction. I also feel like I should give a shout-out to Melissa McCarthy’s career defining turn in Can You Ever Forgive Me? which showcased McCarthy’s range and allowed her to break out of the comedic trope that she is known for.

That’s it for my acting awards roundup. What did you think of the acting award winners? Let me know in the comments below!

My next blog will look at the original and adapted screenplays, director and Best Picture awards.