Film review: Don’t Look Up
Sprawling apocalypse comedy starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence

Having long complained that too few films are engaging with the climate crisis, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, I feel “churlish” for not loving Don’t Look Up, a comedy that does just that. The story follows two astronomers, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, who discover that a Mount Everest-sized comet is zooming towards the planet, and is poised to wipe out human life in six months. The scientists present their findings to the White House, but learn that the “political and media classes can’t or won’t grasp what they’re saying”. There are hints here of Dr. Strangelove and Wag the Dog, but the film is so stuffed with self-aware slapstick that it ends up feeling like a 145-minute Saturday Night Live sketch. Still, if it “helps to do something about climate change, such critical objections are unimportant”.
This “rollicking political satire” runs out of steam eventually, said Kevin Maher in The Times, but its charismatic (and star-studded) cast more than make up for it. DiCaprio provides a “sympathetic study in febrile insecurity” as a nervy professor, while Lawrence’s PhD student is “fabulously caustic”. Along the way, Mark Rylance pops up as “an eerie tech billionaire”; Timothée Chalamet has a turn as a stoner dropout; and Cate Blanchett is “indecently” good as a news anchor determined to “keep it light, keep it fun” as the apocalypse looms. Engaging and funny as it is, said Tori Brazier in Metro, given the 21 months we’ve just had, I found it a bit much, especially at Christmas: “it’s almost a little too close to home to properly enjoy”. Plus the film, like so many, is just “too long for its own good” – “lopping off half an hour” would have tightened it up nicely.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
July 12 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include generational ennui, tariffs on Canada, and a conspiracy rabbit hole
-
5 unusually elusive cartoons about the Epstein files
Cartoons Artists take on Pam Bondi's vanishing desk, the Mar-a-Lago bathrooms, and more
-
Lemon and courgette carbonara recipe
The Week Recommends Zingy and fresh, this pasta is a summer treat
-
Lemon and courgette carbonara recipe
The Week Recommends Zingy and fresh, this pasta is a summer treat
-
Oasis reunited: definitely maybe a triumph
Talking Point The reunion of a band with 'the power of Led Zeppelin' and 'the swagger of the Rolling Stones'
-
Kiefer / Van Gogh: a 'remarkable double act'
The Week Recommends Visit this 'heroic' and 'absurd' exhibition at the Royal Academy until 26 October
-
Mark Billingham shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The novelist and actor shares works by Mark Lewisohn, John Connolly and Gillian Flynn
-
Properties of the week: grand rural residences
The Week Recommends Featuring homes in Wiltshire, Devon, and East Sussex
-
Heads of State: 'a perfect summer movie'
The Week Recommends John Cena and Idris Elba have odd-couple chemistry as the US president and British prime minister
-
The Red Brigades: a 'fascinating insight' into the 'most feared' extremist group of 1970s Italy
The Week Recommends A 'grimly absorbing' history of the group and their attempts to overthrow the Italian state
-
Jurassic World Rebirth: enjoyable sequel hampered by plot holes
Talking Point The latest dinosaur reboot captures the essence of the original – but leans too heavily on 'CGI-heavy set pieces'