Why Don’t Look Up deserves to win Best Picture
The 2022 Oscars ceremony is coming up on March 27, and 10 new movies are up for the Best Picture title: Belfast, CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog, and West Side Story. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and any of them might end up winning big. In the lead-up to the Oscars, we’re making a case for why each of them might deserve to take the big prize.
Don’t Look Up, directed by Adam McKay.
Two astronomers (played by Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio) make a horrifying discovery: a massive meteor is on a collision course with Earth, one that will cause the extinction of all life on the planet. This is followed by an even worse discovery: No one who can do anything about it cares. In a blunt satire of American politics, the meteor’s existence is politicized along party lines, and any sensible response quickly seems to fall out of reach.
Star power and subject. DiCaprio and Lawrence are two huge Oscar-winning stars who have stayed out of the spotlight for a couple of years. Adam McKay has established himself as a purveyor of buzzy topical satire after winning the 2016 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with The Big Short. If you’re a voting body that believes movies can and should be popular and important, Don’t Look Up is an attractive proposition.
Big-budget Hollywood productions have largely abandoned any sense of urgency beyond putting asses in seats for the next franchise installment. While cinema is full of vibrant, important films that streaming has made more accessible than ever, sensory overload abounds and awareness rarely extends beyond the Netflix queue. A win for Don’t Look Up isn’t necessarily an endorsement of its
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