11 Comments

You point out so much here that I was able to draw in my own analysis of the film as well. Very well done and accesible breakdown, thank you! I also sideye the creation of the jennifer lawrence character and what commentary the film thinks it’s making on misogyny and the “ineffectiveness” of “far-left” (from the center) types. i think ultimately they take that righteous frustration she was feeling and sense of urgency and just reduce it to "if you are too honest with people you can never be effective" because the introduction to the rag tag group of misfits who’s re supposed to represent anarchists, gives me very “these people have all the critiques but no solutions” vibes. I think all of that is meant to condition people to think about radicals in a particular way

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Interesting to me that you found this film to be about Covid. While I guess there are similar themes surronding the pandemic, I found this movie to be very clearly about the "existential" threat of climate change. We all just need to listen to the scientists about Climate or else we are doomed!

Although I think your critiques still make perfect sense. I thought this was perhaps the most disgusting movie about climate change I had ever seen

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I really pissed off a seemingly progressive boomer lib by posting this to a group where far more inflammatory content routinely gets posted... and he doesn't react.

Lots of unexamined assumptions, methinks, that will probably remain unexamined.

With luck the younger folks will read this.

I hated this movie. I had high hopes because of "The Big Short," but the hollow glibness of the screenplay for this one, along with the deeper issues Dr. Ali identifies, really gave me the goosebumps.

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It is fascinating to me, and puzzling, why so many people do not seem to remember the sequence of events of the movie. The mission to destroy the comet was purposefully sabotaged (and thus the world doomed) BEFORE the hashtags of "Don't Look Up" and "Just Look Up" appear in the movie. The movie positions the central conflict as being between backward conservative hicks and smart good liberals, but we were doomed by corporate greed before that conflict occurs... the conflict was irrelevant to the outcome and thus the hicks and liberals were also irrelevant.

The few people who doomed the world in pursuit of profit, didn't use input from either group before taking action. I have been thinking about this a lot since watching this film and reading your article here, and asking myself "would the movie have been any different if EVERYONE had said 'Just Look Up' with no opposing side?" Of course not, because no one involved in that argument had an effect on the material outcome.

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Boo. You totally missed all marks. Leo has long been an activist against anthropogenic climate change. Surprised you did not connect the dots. Nothing about Covid is "World Ending". Then you use the rest of the article to shill for China and Communism. Nice.

I suppose you are a denier of the Uyhgr genocide and the Tiananmen slaughter... and you think the protesters in Hong Kong were paid Imperialist actors? What's this Beijing Olympics boycott about again? You trust the data coming out of China about Covid?

Fucking Moron.

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This is profoundly idiotic. First, don’t look up is CLEARLY about climate change. Don’t believe me? Paramount bought the film in 2019. Second, they purposefully had Leo switch up and you act like you’re the only one who noticed, but not us liberals. I don’t have the energy to continue breaking you down but Jesus you’re an awful analyst for someone who takes out the time to write this much lmao. The simple fact that you continually refer to COVID and the worldwide response to demonstrate that this movie was unrealistic shows that you’re TOTALLY off base.

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I find this dissection so strange. The author seems to understand what the filmmaker and writers were going for but simultaneously doesnt seem to think any of it was intentional. A seemingly glowing review tainted in paranoid delusions.

Valid points that broke the suspension of disbelief being the US solely being responsible for taking out the comet, the tech CEO not resembling any present day counterparts, and the fact that the US fully intended to destroy the nuke - only to call the mission off.

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