Rarely has a film been so polarizing as the climate satire Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up. Though it has been seen by millions and is already the third most viewed Netflix movie of all time, critics “responses were overwhelmingly harsh.
Many found the story of scientists scrambling to navigate an asteroid around Earth a crude allegory of the climate crisis, while others found it easy to find dull.
But many in the climate movement have been praising the film and reviews from public opinion in general were positive.
We asked four experts on the climate to share their opinions on the film.
The most starkly striking factor in Don’t Look Up is the sheer depth of feeling at stake for us as people who have been in the trenches of the climate battle for so long.
Don’t Look Up, which follows scientists who try to warn the world that they might be threatened by a comet, is being scuppered by politicians, the media and a tech billionaire eager to play this threat off for his own interests.
The people, who have been in the trenches of the climate fight for a long time, feel an intense cathartic effect when they watch this movie.
It’s simply not a great film, but this is not the kind of painful outlet we need to have.
Loved Don’t Look Up and don’t understand why it’s pissing so many people off. Does it answer every pol question or articulate a way forward? No. But so what? Dr. Strangelove wasn’t exactly a movement manifesto for the anti-nuke movement. But both films hold a devastating mirror.
— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) January 2, 2022
Clever new study out today: historical climate sci media covg analysis
News Corp's @dailytelegraph + @couriermail score 2nd and 4th worst in science accuracy, 2005-2019 (Oz not analysed)
Aus least-accurate 2013 onwards, (relative to Can, NZ, UK, US)https://t.co/CDl8tNqcyY pic.twitter.com/r6nL9GIc4o
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) August 17, 2021
Three aspects of the brilliantly funny and cathartic movie #DontLookUp that struck a chord with me based on my experiences as a climate scientist over the last 26 years (thread) :
— Peter Stott (@StottPeter) January 2, 2022
Finally saw the @Netflix film “Don’t Look Up,” a fictional tale of a Nation distracted by pop-culture and divided on whether to heed dire warnings of scientists.
Everything I know about news-cycles, talk shows, social media, & politics tells me the film was instead a documentary pic.twitter.com/tvDuEUXWCW
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 29, 2021