Two astronomers find a comet heading straight for Earth, and nobody in power wants to hear it. Adam McKay's Don't Look Up puts Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence at the center of a huge cast, with Meryl Streep as the President, and it landed on Netflix in December 2021 as one of the most argued-over films of the year. Critics split almost down the middle, with Rotten Tomatoes settling at about 55% positive across more than 240 reviews.
What critics loved
The cast came up again and again, even in mixed reviews. Pete Hammond at Deadline called Streep a riot as a clueless President and said Jonah Hill steals every scene. Ian Sandwell at Digital Spy and James Mottram at the South China Morning Post both singled out Mark Rylance as a highlight, and IndieWire's David Ehrlich praised Melanie Lynskey's quieter turn.
Plenty of critics simply found it very funny. Mick LaSalle at the San Francisco Chronicle suggested it "might be the funniest movie of 2021," and Empire's Ian Freer described it as Armageddon with a brain. The Film Stage thought it was funnier than McKay's earlier prestige films, and Awards Radar's Joey Magidson called it a smart, vicious treat for McKay's fans. Some critics also found it moving and unnervingly timely, with Inverse's Robert Daniels seeing real heart under the jokes.
Where critics split
The detractors were loud. Peter Debruge at Variety felt McKay couldn't decide whether he wanted to amuse or upset the audience, and David Rooney at the Hollywood Reporter insisted it was no Dr. Strangelove. Polygon found it unfunny, the Daily Beast felt it had little new to say, and the Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone ran headlines calling it a disaster. The Guardian's review took issue with what it saw as smug superiority, and even fans like The Verge's Andrew Webster thought it ran a little long.
The consensus
Don't Look Up is a film critics either laughed along with or lost patience with. Fun lands at 3.5 because many reviewers found it consistently amusing, with a starry cast clearly enjoying itself, while others found the jokes heavy-handed. QC sits at 3: the performances were widely praised, but the length, the shifting tone and the bluntness of the satire kept it from the top tier for many critics.
Sources
- Rotten Tomatoes: Don't Look Up first reviews (Deadline, IndieWire, San Francisco Chronicle, Empire, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, The Verge, Digital Spy, South China Morning Post, Awards Radar, The Film Stage, Inverse)
- BGR: Critics are bashing the #1 movie on Netflix right now (Polygon, Wall Street Journal, Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, The Guardian)
- BGR: You're allowed to hate Netflix's Don't Look Up (Rotten Tomatoes score, Polygon, Wall Street Journal, Daily Beast, Rolling Stone)
- Variety: Don't Look Up review (Peter Debruge)