Jennifer Lawrence in "Don't Look Up".
A (Probably Unnecessary) Disclaimer
This is not an official or even unofficial movie review for Don't Look Up. Nor is there any fervent political or artistic view being argued in this "article". The main reason I am writing this is to share the information and resources surrounding the climate crisis that this film has led me to finding. Remarks about ignorance and moral obligation are included because they elucidate my feelings toward the complexities of climate action.
As we all know, climate change is a very tricky subject.
Now, you do not have to think that Don't Look Up is a good film to give a shit about these things. You also do not have to give a shit about these things.
Nevertheless, if you’ve ever wondered why it seems like no one really cares about "the end of the world", and specifically if it might help if you did, you may now decide whether or not an answer is worth the 8 minutes that it will take you to read this article.
I hope that for most of you, it is.
A Pessimistic - I Mean, Realistic - Claim
As a dangerously hormonal person, I'll admit that it took me a full week to gather the strength I knew I would need to watch Don't Look Up without having a major breakdown. After numbing my brain with just the right amount of assorted youtube videos (thank god for Brittany Broski), I finally sat my emotional ass down and logged into my dad's Netflix account. The breakdown was only a minor one, subsided by many, many snacks, and then agitated by some long texts pasted over filtered selfies that I shared relentlessly to my Instagram stories until I realized what I was doing.
Before pressing play, I had only my initial reaction to the trailer and some quick reads of recent articles and reviews, that helped form my inevitable bias against the film. Since the reviews I looked at were so divided, I genuinely thought that it was going to be tacky, dramatic, excessively cringey and painfully dull with how "obvious" it was.
Basically, I hoped it wouldn't, but I was ready for it to suck.
In my humble opinion, (for context, I thought Red Notice was awesome) Don't Look Up was very well done. The script was fine, the acting was great, and the ending was noteworthy. The parts that made me laugh out loud made up for the constant frustration that held me hostage through each scene. It is almost impossible to explain how this was a good thing without spoiling the movie, so I'll just move on, especially since the aesthetic worth of the film is not what I'm concerned about.
The star of the film and real life environmentalist, Leonardo DiCaprio, says that Don't Look Up serves as "an analogy of modern day culture and our inability to hear and listen to scientific truth." This is fair, since it is true; we (us average folk in modern day culture) become easily obsessed and distracted by the responsibilities and anxieties of everyday life, and while many of us definitely hear scientific truth, it is unrealistic for us to continually be listening and responding to it.
Now, I do think of myself as a fairly optimistic person, but the older I get, the more realistic my thoughts get (boo!). As such, I cannot help but think that the ethos of this film will fail to spark a significant amount of climate action amongst its viewers - and if it does, it probably will not last.
DiCaprio chose to do this movie because he had been searching for the best way to express to as many people as possible that so much damage caused by climate change is irreversible, which is a decent goal to have, since far too many of us do not understand the severity of this statement.
The unfortunate thing is that, those who deny or otherwise dismiss the severity of climate change in the first place may very well take the teasing nature of the film too personally, thus missing the point and rendering poor DiCaprio's efforts pretty much useless.
Ignorance is bliss until people start pointing out your ignorance.
Don't Look Up is therefore impractical when it comes to addressing the problem of ignorance in modern society in the sense that it is not meant for those who could care less about the terrifying reality of our own existential threats. Rather, it is most promising for those who already comprehend what DiCaprio pleads next: "If we're not voting for leaders or supporting everything that has to do with climate mitigating, we're going to have a fate very similar to these characters."
Again, I doubt this film will inspire anyone to just get up and go support something that mitigates climate change, but critics of the film should consider these words when they begin to undermine the main message it is clearly trying to send to its viewers.
Alas, it seems very unlikely that they will. I have said it before and I will continue repeating it: Being a moral agent is much more complex than one might think. Without a moral dilemma sitting directly in front of them (handling the climate crisis), most humans have little concern for moral action (helping to mitigate climate change).
And even with the contribution of individual action, it all means absolutely nothing if the only systems that have the power to combat climate change, refuse to. We know that major media outlets keep ignoring the problem, and corporations and governments continue acting like they're doing enough to fix it.
Solely recognizing the problem is not fixing it, and like many social issues that rapidly gather momentum only to exist as a loud but brief trend on social media, whatever attention that is given to the climate crisis from the help of Dont Look Up will probably meet the same fate in the next week or so.
And that's the realistic tea. (Sorry but I can't bring myself to delete that sentence.)
Something Positive
While it's easy to accept that individual action alone appears fruitless in the greater scheme of climate action, I still think it is fair to suggest that we use our voices (even if only for the short amount of time that #LookUp/#DontLookUp stays trending on twitter) to amplify those dedicating their lives to fighting for a global shift in legislation.
Last week, climate scientist Peter Kalmus posted a fantastic article expressing how Don't Look Up is “the most accurate film about society’s terrifying non-response to climate breakdown” that he has seen. He highlights how the ridiculous characters holding power in the film reflect, quite unfortunately, the extent to which policymakers in the real world have the ability to slow and prevent the climate crisis from worsening, but do not.
He reminds us that "more than half of Republican members of Congress still say climate change is a hoax and many more wish to block action, and in which the official Democratic party platform still enshrines massive subsidies to the fossil fuel industry; in which the current president ran on a promise that 'nothing will fundamentally change', and the speaker of the House dismissed even a modest climate plan as 'the green dream or whatever'; in which the largest delegation to Cop26 was the fossil fuel industry, and the White House sold drilling rights to a huge tract of the Gulf of Mexico after the summit; in which world leaders say that climate is an 'existential threat to humanity' while simultaneously expanding fossil fuel production; in which major newspapers still run fossil fuel ads, and climate news is routinely overshadowed by sports; in which entrepreneurs push incredibly risky tech solutions and billionaires sell the absurdist fantasy that humanity can just move to Mars."
Kalmus hopes that Dont Look Up, "which comically depicts how hard it is to break through prevailing norms, actually helps break through those norms in real life."
In other words, the film should not be dismissed or belittled altogether, because at least it has the potential to get people thinking twice about the gradual devastation of our planet.
My concern remains, however, that just thinking more about the uncanny similarities between this scripted world that is ending, and our own, won't help anything unless these thoughts are taken very seriously by those with the ability to change legislations.
Considering that individual action is kind of meaningless, is there any point to giving a shit about the end of the world in the first place?
The short answer is yes. The more precise answer is yes, but...
Shall We... Do Something?
We are facing a global crisis that will continue to slowly destroy the earth if those in power do not start listening to, and implementing, recommended solutions drawn out by climate scientists and innovators alike. This much we can be certain of.
So why should we, as innocent individuals, feed into our anxiety and adopt the fake guilt of certain political leaders, thus taking it upon ourselves to try to make a change when I literally just said that individual action is kind of meaningless?
What I said was honest. Individual action is kind of meaningless. It only becomes effective once you stop thinking of it as an irrational response to existential anxiety, and begin looking at it as a slow yet valuable contribution to a collective, more impactful effort.
That is to say, individual action becomes meaningful once it is considered essential to the goal of combined impact. Perhaps this is painfully obvious to my readers, but I seriously needed to be reminded of this.
What’s cool is that some people working with Don't Look Up have actually produced its own website in collaboration with the global action platform Count Us In, which explains this very idea and ultimately makes sense of its paradoxical nature. It does this by presenting potential activists with an array of "steps" to choose from to help mitigate climate change, informing them of the desired effects of combined impact as opposed to sole effort or individual impact.
It states: "Avoiding the worst of the climate crisis is a global issue that requires bold action by leaders everywhere. But individuals have a role to play too. Project Drawdown estimates that, as individuals, we can drive 25-30% of the global emission reductions needed to avoid the worst of climate change."
The website seems to have been created with the aim of inspiring the average person to get involved with saving the world in a totally tangible way. Its focus is not to appeal to individual guilt caused by inaction or appease the egos of those who feel compelled to do more. It ensures its visitors: "Don’t worry if you’re not able to take some steps, or not ready to take others. There’s something for everyone."
Basically, it presents a moral dilemma in the most empathetic and patient manner - which, no offence, is exactly what the average person needs to feel compelled to take action! We are extremely insecure and confused beings, dammit!
With the new year commencing and peoples willingness to try new things at its peak, this might actually be the perfect time to encourage each other to stick with something important like climate action.
Now, if the critics of Dont Look Up would just shift their attention away from their sore asses, they might be able to experience this very potential epiphany that Kalmus is so stoked about.
I reiterate that it is very possible that this film will only rile up a small group of individuals with voices screaming into the void, which is actually the internet, which responds with nothing more than harsh reviews and memes.
Nonetheless, even if the attention being given to climate scientists seems superficial in the moment, at least it has the potential to stimulate greater interest which may very well grow strong enough to generate more meaningful, combined involvement that can be reached through the link in DiCaprio's Instagram bio - which has more than 51 million followers. A very good start for potential inspiration.
The End - But Who Cares, Right?
Don't Look Up has proved, considering its mixed feedback, to be both annoying and inspirational, because in order for me to expand on the latter I had to write this thing.
When I first saw the trailer for the film, I was glad knowing that it would get people talking about it's obviously satirical reflection of how most of our political leaders deliberately ignore climate scientists because they're too busy (to steal from the film) "getting disgustingly more rich!"
While the film succeeded to a certain extent at sparking conversation, I have expressed my doubts that any significant momentum is going to hold. Either way, I honestly appreciate the films' initiative, because as far as satire goes, one can only do so much with such a tragically realistic theme.
And call me a sheep, but if it makes climate scientists happy, then I'd say it's worth watching.
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