«Don’t Look», this is the film of the year – Corriere.it

“Do you know how many apocalyptic meetings we’ve had? Economic crisis, nuclear weapons, hostile artificial intelligence, air pollution, drought, famine, epidemics, population growth, the ozone hole … ». This key phrase uttered by the President of the United States is enough to explain Reason
“do not search” Is the movie of the year: Both the one who just finished and the one who just started. Because by inventing an imaginary comet – the comet is on its way to Earth – it is able to tell us and even make us laugh at the various emergencies that are overlooking us. Start with the most dangerous: Discrediting politics and information.

President Janie OrleansPlayed by Meryl Streep who has asserted that she is the best at every opportunity, she is the kind of Donald Trump woman. It comes from business and leisure. It’s disastrously superficial, but it carries the audience’s pulse, and it has a sense of home. Her right arm is her son (more unprepared than Ivanka). is being Clearly republican, even if the details aren’t specifically spelled out because they are basically details of: On the desk in the Oval Office, she holds a picture of Clinton embracing as if calling out the Democrats too. At first, the president did not take credit for the threat, fearing it would cost her the midterm elections; Only to ride it then, to divert attention from a sex scandal (she sent intimate photos of her partner, who ran for the Supreme Court).

But the head of a scoundrel is inappropriate We’ve already seen that. And maybe more than one. The real villain in the movie is Peter IsherwellThe third richest man in the world, the king of mobile phones Bash, in a wonderful sentence: “He who bought and then lost the Gutenberg Bible.” In short, Isherwell is the revived Steve Jobs, accompanied by Bill Gates (The Gutenberg Bibles are actually dozens, while Leonardo’s Codex Leicester is only one, and it’s his own) And by Elon Musk: It’s no coincidence that Isherwell has a spacecraft ready to escape disaster, in search of a planet on which human life is implanted Obviously, it starts on its own. Like true internet masters, Isherwell knows all about us, including how we’re going to die. He knows that even those who think they are perfect are in reality He does nothing but escape from pain and seek pleasure. And he is the only one who immediately understands that the danger is really serious; But not to the point of giving up the profit from them. And also because in his hands the president is a lender and a manipulator.

Eight years before Trump’s tweetsObama was the first president to use the Internet or delude himself that he can. Pushed into the White House also with a clever digital campaign, thinking he could keep riding the tiger, he asked his followers: What are the first things you want to do? Nobody talked about taxes or jobs; The African American president was asked to free the joints and reveal the secrets of UFOs. But The Internet and social networks have not only underestimated politics. They stole the soul of the information. After the president’s refusal, the comet’s discoverers – extraordinarily obsessed Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence with a red nose ring and pop – turn to a large newspaper called New York Herald, to evoke The New York Times (Who took it with self-irony: in the review he quotes the “New York newspaper famous for its gothic edition”, as if to say: The film really belongs to us.) But journalists, surrounded by algorithm experts, aren’t interested in a story that attracts a few clicks; Also due to the two worlds disastrous performance on Morning Talk, which was dominated by a reconciliation between two influencers, a DJ and a singer who got involved in defending manatees (Ariana Grande, actually in part).

In this world of absurdity That could become the Internet, the news of the end of the world is not initially considered. Then it generates the wave of conspiracy that we’ve already seen build up with the pandemic. Only in the end, when it is too late, we hurry to take measures: the United Nations plans a mission in vain; They are secretly organized by China, Russia and India but fail (perhaps Escherwell himself interrupted them); Ariana Grande sends manatees to hell and draws other influencers into combat; However, the president is calling on her constituents not to look at the approaching comet — specifically “don’t look up” — because the warning is radically elegant stuff. theThe rest of the plot is already known
(the Courier service He was the first to deal with it in Italy thanks to Aldo Grasso), and in any case we do not want to spoil the surprises. However, it is interesting to note how much the film talks about us as citizens of 2022. The world it describes is ours; As well as producers and actors.

to fund it from Netflix, Another master of the Internet, a brilliant and ruthless killer of cinemas: the work was shown in American cinemas on December 10, but no one noticed; The confrontation between fans and critics exploded when it came flowing with Christmas. The two heroines have moved their stakes into the mountain of global inequality: $25 million for Lawrence, $30 million for DiCaprio (in compensation, the two took care of Streep. Leonardo didn’t want her to appear naked in the last scene, as she was actually replaced in a spare pose; Lawrence called it the Goat, an acronym for “the greatest of all time”, the greatest of all time; Even if Meryl first realizes that her young classmate has given her goats, goat accurately). A few good things among the many: the adorable images of hippos and other large animals cuddling the pups, which are listed as insidious parodies of online cuteness and the stylistic features of disastrous films; And the impudent warrior who falls from glorious soldier They shoot the comet and shout: “You won’t make me alive!” Hopefully we’ll be able to say that too in 2022; But only as a joke, and with the smile that Adam McKay movie gives us.