Why you should watch Don’t Look Up today

Just at the last minute, we get a movie in 2021 with a star-studded cast that will blow your mind. I mention Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Ariana Grande, Cate Blanchett, Timothee Chalamet, and many more. All in one film: Don’t Look Up. It’s available on Netflix today and you really want to see it. I’ve already done that and I can tell you: I found it truly one of the best films of the year.

It’s also a film about which I would love to share all the ins and outs, but then I would reveal too much. Just like with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, where you really shouldn’t spoil the ending for people. Also with Leo, by the way, but Don’t Look Up is definitely my preference. But here too, I won’t spoil the ending. That’s something you really have to see for yourself.

Don’t Look Up tells the story of a scientist (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his PhD candidate (Jennifer Lawrence). The latter spots a comet, a fairly large one, which is initially big and beautiful news. Until they calculate the trajectory and speed of that comet and come to the conclusion that it will hit Earth in six months and thus destroy humanity. Panic all around is an understatement.

The problem is that no one wants to listen to them, not even the president (Meryl Streep) is interested. She is mainly busy campaigning to get re-elected, and the announcement of an all-destroying comet doesn’t quite fit into that picture.

Delightful are the obvious references to contemporary events: the president who hires a family member à la Trump with Ivanka in The Office, which is the case here with the president's son, wonderfully played by Jonah Hill. The caps with slogans during the campaign, the exaggerated character of American talk shows where ultimately nothing can really be discussed: delightful.

This also makes it quite painful. Leonardo DiCaprio has already spoken out that this film is also a kind of warning to us. If we continue to treat the Earth this way, this will ultimately be our fate as well. Of course, it’s heavily exaggerated, but you can’t deny that we as a population (even though the film mainly concerns the United States) always make the best decisions.

And that ending… Well, I’m not going to say anything. Just watch it. In fact, I would almost cancel my Christmas dinner for it. It gets a solid nine.