Don't Look Up (2021)

Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), an astronomy grad student, and her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) make an astounding discovery of a comet orbiting within the solar system. The problem - it's on a direct collision course with Earth. The other problem? No one really seems to care. Turns out warning mankind about a planet-killer the size of Mount Everest is an inconvenient fact to navigate. With the help of Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), Kate and Randall embark on a media tour that takes them from the office of an indifferent President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her sycophantic son and Chief of Staff, Jason (Jonah Hill), to the airwaves of The Daily Rip, an upbeat morning show hosted by Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry). With only six months until the comet makes impact, managing the 24-hour news cycle and gaining the attention of the social media obsessed public before it's too late proves shockingly comical - what will it take to get the world to just look up?

From IMDB:

Funny and chillingly accurate and plausible
grantss28 December 2021
Two astronomers discover a massive comet heading towards Earth. The comet will wipe out mankind in six months' time if nothing is done about it. They manage to gain an audience with the US President, land on TV talk shows and have their story printed in the media but everyone seems to have other priorities.

On the surface a disaster movie in the vein of Armageddon or Deep Impact. However, it is not just that and is far better than that.

Written and directed by Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice, The Other Guys, Anchorman), Don't Look Up is a funny, accurate examination of the warped priorities and agendas of the people who have the largest control over our lives. Politicians care more about how something will impact their polling numbers than saving mankind, the media cares more about finding something slanderous on a person than alerting people to imminent destruction, talk shows care more about sensationalism, the personal lives of vapid pop stars and on putting on a happy face than on news that actually matters to people, corporate opportunists who use even a planet-destroying disaster to make a profit and in so doing increase the danger (and how the politicians fall in line behind them).

It is all quite chillingly accurate and plausible: from experience you can relate to the misguided, self-absorbed agendas of these institutions and individuals and the powerlessness and irritation you feel in having to deal with them and their decisions.

It is so close to home that it sometimes makes the film irritating to watch: you'd rather not be reminded how incompetent, superficial, self-servicing and nefarious the government, media etc are, how they screw up your life on a regular basis and how likely it is that they will eventually wipe out mankind.

All this makes for a film that is one part hilariously funny and another part scarily serious and confronting. Unlike some other movies I did not find this mix of comedy and drama jarring. In fact, the humour helps point out the absurdity of it all.

By the way, keep watching until the very end. There's two scenes woven into/after the credits that are worth sticking around for.

https://www2.zoechip.com/movie/dont-look-up-75382