Brie also makes a play for Randall, which makes less sense given that DiCaprio has seldom been made to look more unattractively sexless in a movie. Like Charlize Theron in that film, she makes her character a shark, ridiculing Kate when the latter cuts in on the hosts’ frivolous on-air banter to shriek that the end is nigh. With gleaming dental implants, frozen features plastered in waxwork makeup and a flawless blond flip, Blanchett looks like a refugee from the swiftly forgotten Bombshell. As hosts Brie Evantee and Jack Bremmer, Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry are in full-blown sketch-comedy mode, determined to keep their show, The Daily Rip, perky and light no matter how gloomy the topic. The performances lurch even further into caricature when Randall and Kate, after striking out with a thinly veiled version of The New York Times, take their concerns about the Dibiasky Comet, as it’s now known, to morning television. But if the short attention span and the disrespect for science weren’t enough, the liaison with a former porn star and the obsequious asshole son desperate for her approval hammer it home with the subtlety of, well, a meteor impact. McKay possibly believes that by making the president a woman, the Trump allusion won’t be too on the nose. “What is this going to cost me?” asks POTUS, looking warily toward the midterms before she decides to “sit tight and assess,” instructing Jason to get some Ivy Leaguers on it. When they finally get some Oval Office face time, both the vain, condescending president and her snarky, sycophantic son and chief of staff, Jason (Jonah Hill), brush them off. But President Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep) is too preoccupied by some embarrassing disclosures about her shady Supreme Court nominee to see them. Oglethorpe, who goes by Teddy, accompanies them to a White House meeting organized by Pentagon brass General Themes (Paul Guilfoyle). Clayton Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), head of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which, as the film points out, actually exists. Mindy asks himself when Kate alerts him to her discovery of the killer comet rocketing toward Earth, predicting a direct hit in just over 6 months. Randall Mindy, a character mostly defined by his insecurities, anxiety attacks and occasional reliance on Xanax. Leonardo DiCaprio - whose longstanding advocacy on environmental issues reportedly was instrumental in him signing on to the project - plays Kate’s professor, Dr. She quietly sings “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta Fuck Wit” while working, but we know right off that she’s smart and serious. Jennifer Lawrence plays Kate Dibiasky, a doctoral student in astronomy at a Michigan college, a character defined mostly by her two nose rings and razor-cut red bangs. McKay drops in the famous joke by humorist Jack Handey near the start: “I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror like his passengers.” Would that this tiresome doomsday whoopee cushion contained something even half as witty. The squandering of a dizzying assembly of marquee talent alone is aggravation enough. This new feature takes those negatives to extremes that made me hostile to Don’t Look Up almost from the outset. What they don’t usually provide is depth, nuance or any sort of intelligent curiosity, generally opting to razzle-dazzle the viewer with lots of fast talk, smart-assy pseudo-cleverness and cartoonishly obvious characterizations. Since rebranding from goofball comedies to Important Issues Satire with The Big Short and Vice, writer-director Adam McKay has specialized in movies far too pleased with themselves as they prompt audiences to feel superior to amoral conservatives, piously self-satisfied liberals and insatiably avaricious capitalists. Screenwriter: Adam McKay story by McKay, David Sirota Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Scott Mescudi, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Melanie Lynskey
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