There is a great film somewhere in Don’t Look Up, it just takes a short while to fully manifest. This is much more than can be said about the two previous forays by Adam McKay into a more serious-minded form of filmmaking, with his recent efforts being the infantilizing The Big Short, and the absolutely dreadful and condescending Vice, both of which seemed to be under the impression that its audience is singularly incapable of free thought, requiring every detail to be explained to us, or else we won’t be able to understand the supposedly complex information. This doesn’t mean that his newest offering is entirely perfect – Don’t Look Up is the rare kind of film that has a rough start (to the point where it almost seems like yet another bad film from a director continuously proving himself to be hopelessly out of his depth), but once it hits a particular stride, it becomes something quite impressive, working through its flaws. Certainly not without its abundance of shortcomings scattered liberally throughout, giving off the sensation that McKay is constantly trying to make films that are out of his wheelhouse. The critical eye will tell you that, while this is undeniably true, this film proves that McKay is finally on the right track when it comes to these more serious social satires, making the kind of darkly comical societal and political parable that he has clearly been itching to make for nearly a decade now. This shouldn’t be mistaken for glowing adoration, but rather subdued praise, an acknowledgement of the fact that McKay finally managed to effectively merge his more comedic sensibilities with his clear interest in more serious subject matter – and while it doesn’t allow all of its ideas to manifest perfectly, Don’t Look Up has a lot more promise than we’d initially believe, proving to be a much better film than it ought to have been, one of the more striking surprises of the year.

Forming a loose trilogy, McKay’s entries into more serious filmmaking interestingly cover different themes – he started with a satire on the financial world, followed by that of the political sector. Don’t Look Up ventures into the world of the scientific (and recent developments have indicated that his next target is the technological sphere) – this proves that he is casually making his way through all the major institutions that wield power in the contemporary world, filtering them through a distinctly American lens, but still considering the global impact of the actions of the United States. To his credit, McKay is a writer and director whose work has always shown that he has a firm grasp on the cultural pulse – it was undeniably more present in the more vulgar comedies that started his career (and remain his best work by far), but with Don’t Look Up, he seems to be gradually making his way back to this style of commenting on deeper issues without needing to disregard his audience, to whom he finally provides some credit, even if only marginally. He is hopelessly devoted to a firm set of socio-cultural ideals, which he tries to combine with his sardonic sense of humour and more sobering subject matter – and for the first time, it actually seems to work, since the film we receive is a relatively well-conceived dark comedy with very bleak underpinnings that will be daunting to even the most desensitized viewer, who will doubtlessly find themselves questioning these same issues alongside McKay, who seems to be crafting this film as he goes along, not in the sense that it feels unprepared, but rather intentionally vague in its aims, which may be frustrating for those looking for a more positive resolution or clear answer to the questions posed by the film, but positively inspiring for those who are seeking something different – and quite frankly, while it may not be perfect, mainstream films do not often get bolder than they do in Don’t Look Up, for better or worse.

Don’t Look Up requires a critically thinking audience to fully have its ideas represented. Fortunately, McKay acknowledges that this audience doesn’t need to be composed of anyone with credentials or qualifications, or even much of a knowledge of science and its details – instead, all it needs are viewers who are willing to stop and listen. Putting aside the first act, which we soon learn is intentionally uneven as a way of establishing the tone of the film, McKay gets right to the point the moment the stakes become official, and the risk starts to appear far more realistic, moving from speculation to fact (the transition proving to be quite controversial in the context of the film’s events, an interesting quality that McKay ensures to explore in great detail), and eventually oscillating between the two. This is not a comedy that seeks to entertain – it is perhaps the bleakest film of the year, if only for the sake of the content. McKay is following in the footsteps of some of his cinematic inspirations (such as Network, which remains the gold standard when it comes to satirizing the media), but never avoiding going in his own direction, interrogating themes such as the stranglehold the media has on the world, as well as the political institutions that prove to be the complete antithesis of protecting the rights and interests of its people. This is a biting, harrowing drama that heeds a powerful warning in the form of an outrageous comedy – and while it isn’t the first time McKay has used humour as a means to slightly conceal the horrors of reality, it is the one instance where it is actually extremely effective, mainly in how the director gives the viewer the respect and credibility to be able to see this film and not only be entertained by its humour (which is undoubtedly present – Don’t Look Up is an extremely funny film), but also engage with its themes on a much deeper level. It’s almost as if McKay wants the viewer to walk away from the film shaken, disturbed and shocked – after all, what better way to get a message across than putting the audience through a true ordeal?

One of the more bewildering qualities of McKay’s films is that he somehow manages to attract many well-known actors, populating his ensembles with a variety of major stars. Whether this is because McKay has industry connections, or simply writes roles that are coveted by some of the biggest actors working today, his recent efforts have been notable star-studded. Don’t Look Up is inarguably his most ambitious film in this regard, with the sprawling cast featuring many fantastic names that we’d never have expected to show up in a film by the same person who made Step-Brothers over a decade ago. The film is led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, who are doing work that may not be their strongest, but rather relies on their natural talents. Unfortunately, one of the shortcomings of Don’t Look Up is that no one is really doing anything outside of their comfort zone – some may think this is McKay simply playing to the strengths of his actors, while others just think it is the result of the director making up these roles as he goes along, defining them along what he knows his actors can do. DiCaprio and Lawrence are bona fide movie stars, so there wasn’t much they needed to do to keep us invested, their presence combined with the interesting characters making them suitable leads. The more compelling performances come from the supporting roles – Don’t Look Up is the first collaboration between Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett (who are frequently cited together as amongst the greatest actors in the history of the medium), both of whom are doing very broad work that could be considered bad at first, especially when it feels like they were cast for their name rather than their talent. However, whereas the two leads tend to fade into the background as the film goes on, the supporting cast starts to shine, with Streep and Blanchett receiving some genuinely funny moments along the way, as do Mark Rylance (whose excess may be an acquired taste, but it eventually starts to make sense when we realize the kind of character he is playing), Rob Morgan and a variety of other familiar faces that help turn Don’t Look Up into a true ensemble effort, its strengths coming from the spirited work done by its actors, who approach the intimidating storyline with confidence.

Satire is not always the easiest concept to work with – many artists are under the impression that the combination of timely subject matter and a sardonic sense of humour is more than appropriate in making an effective satire, which is not always the most reliable formula. McKay isn’t someone who has perfected it yet, but with Don’t Look Up, he seems to be taking inspiration from a few of the more notable cinematic satires, namely the aforementioned Network and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb – not only in their approach to comedy, but also a more elusive quality that is often missing in most satirical films: a genuine sense of terror. Throughout this film, we start to fall under the same paranoid sense of panic that engulfs these characters, the story being quite effective in evoking a genuine sense of panic. For all his faults as a filmmaker in the past, McKay somehow manages to playfully alter the tone of the film, taking it from an outrageous comedy to near-horror, having the same sense of dread that only the most disturbing films tend to have. Telling this story through anything but the lens of a comedy would have been nearly impossible – this narrative required an outrageous sense of humour that allows for more pointed commentary, which many would assume would soften the play of the more bleak message, but instead actually amplifies it to the point where we stop laughing, and instead fall into a kind of panic, which makes Don’t Look Up a much more terrifying film than it would appear on the surface. Perhaps it isn’t the most nuanced exploration of these fundamental themes, but its certainly one of the most effective, and choosing to design it along the lines of an absurdist dark comedy that refuses to restrict itself to just a few well-placed jokes, Don’t Look Up is remarkably effective, if not sometimes a bit too rough around the edges – however, when can we honestly say that any effective work of satire has been entirely polished? As a genre, it is notoriously gaudy and confrontational, which is certainly inherited by this film.

It’s not unlikely that many viewers will feel some kind of existential panic while watching this film, and Don’t Look Up doesn’t do much by way of soothing the nerves of those who realize the message at the heart of the film is far more relevant than the merely speculative nature of the story. McKay doesn’t hide the fact that the narrative focuses on the importance of paying attention to the objective facts presented by scientists, and looking beyond the malignant agenda of those in positions of political power. Don’t Look Up has quite a cynical world view – absolutely none of these characters are all that admirable, with even the scientists themselves finding their lives becoming enveloped by the impact of the media, which is presented as a far more sinister force than many of us imagine it to be. From McKay’s perspective, objectivity is not in the working vocabulary of anyone in the media, who exist solely to take part in some bizarre socio-cultural ritual, rather than presenting the facts to the general public. The intentions that underpin this film are far from subtle, and McKay is not someone who we’d normally expect to be particularly elegant about his underlying aims when it comes to this story. The real-world commentary is extremely heavy-handed, to the point where it becomes something of a flaw to the film as a whole, since we’re presented with a neverending barrage of images and ideas, which can be extraordinarily overwhelming. Don’t Look Up desperately needed a better editor, since it has some very promising ideas, but they’re chopped together in a way that only heightens our anxiety, which may have been an intentional choice, but leads to quite an unpleasant experience. Yet. McKay makes it very clear that he’s not interested in entertaining us at all. Instead, he’s trying to convey a vitally important message, using all the tools at his disposal to get these bold ideas across. The result is something quite disconcerting and uncomfortable, but also of radical importance. We can either view Don’t Look Up as a wildly ambitious speculative satire, or as a cautionary tale about the importance of seeing through the malarkey – the choice is our own, but it becomes clear, regardless of how jagged the film may be, that there’s an important message at the heart, one that is far more vital than any of the artistic flourishes that exist throughout the film.