Few would argue that the ground right now is awfully fertile for a great political satire. After all, the absurdity of our contemporary moment certainly rivals that of the era that produced, for example, Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1963), the sharpest of American political comedies. That film hilariously parodied the then-pervasive notion of mutually assured destruction (MAD) and became a permanent cinematic classic. Isn’t it about time somebody stepped up, as Kubrick did, and painted paint our current world leadership as the farce that it is?
Netflix’s Don’t Look Up, directed by Adam McKay, would like to do just that. But the problem with the comedy of Don’t Look Up—and really with most political comedy today—is that its creators are too horrified by its intended satirical targets to make real jokes. They don’t find their material funny.
Whereas Kubrick saw the genuine humor in the absurd gamesmanship that was bringing our world to the brink of annihilation, and made us laugh (and thereby reflect) by foisting that comic vision on us, McKay and his actors are simply rattled. Don’t Look Up, one quickly realizes with dismay, doesn’t have much interest in comedy, because it’s too saddened, frustrated, and above all angry: angry at the media, angry at Trump, angry at tech companies, angry at old people.
The lead casting of Jennifer Lawrence, queen of the profane scream, is a tipoff that this movie, despite its ostensible purpose, isn’t joking around. True to form, Lawrence’s character spends the film cursing into the void and moodily sulking around, and on several occasions she advances the opinion that depression and panic are the only rational reactions to our current moment. Maybe so, but I’ve never watched a comedy before that argues that now isn’t the time to be laughing.
Besides, by harboring a dismissive view of humor and charging straight for vexed didacticism (“If we can’t agree on that, what the fuck HAPPENED TO US?!”), McKay paradoxically ensures that his film will have no tangible impact whatsoever, beyond further discomposing the already-pissed off liberal base it was made for and by. Humor, when done with conviction, has power. Giving the finger, on the other hand, has very little, especially when it’s done by a bunch of rich people.
I understand the position that Trumpian politics is inherently unfunny, given its clear dangerousness and its sad indictment of American culture. I’d argue back that Kubrick found humor in the apocalypse, and it’s assumedly still there. But regardless of how you feel on that subject, we can all agree that if you don’t find something funny, you shouldn’t make a comedy about it. Comedies that end with their characters morosely saying grace around a dinner table as their inevitable deaths approach might—just might—have missed the mark when it comes to the spirit of farce.
Sapped of its humor by its indignant creators, the only thing Don’t Look Up has to offer is the questionable personal catharsis of a big “Fuck you” to the idiots running our world. Maybe watching that makes you feel better about living in 2021. It didn’t for me. And it didn’t look like it did for Jennifer Lawrence, either.
–Jim Andersen
For more reviews, check out my review of CODA.