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How ‘Don’t Look Up’s Unique Tone Makes its Message Tick

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How ‘Don’t Look Up’s Unique Tone Makes its Message Tick

The Netflix film, Don’t Look Up, made waves with its recent appearance on the streaming service. It boasts a high profile, coveted cast with Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothee Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, and Jonah Hill, as well as Jennifer Lawrence back from a long hiatus. The film was written and directed by Adam McKay, who’s currently at his best with his writing and directing credits, as well as being a producer on the hit HBO show, Succession. On top of all of that, the movie’s immediate availability on Netflix makes it easily streamable for such a name-dropping cast. Since its release, Don’t Look Up has received very mixed reviews. This isn’t entirely surprising in light of the film’s very mixed tones. Still, no matter how it affected individual viewers, this movie’s message is clear. Don’t Look Up makes this happen with some unusual editing and juxtaposition. These details separate the film from being a truly terrifying disaster movie to walking the line between satire and fear.

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

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With a message like “the world is ending, and the powers that be are going to let it happen,” it’s pretty surprising that a main criticism of Don’t Look Up is that it’s just one long joke. This particular message rings pretty true and is hard not to acknowledge – especially after the past few years we’ve all had. This movie comes at a vital time, and the delivery of its message is indisputable. But, in many ways, it is one long joke. So, how does a joke become a dread-inducing acknowledgement of what we all know and either do or do not admit?

Don’t Look Up has multiple elements working together to deliver this strong message. Many of these elements are heavy-handed, but something that made its point subtly effective was how the movie juxtaposed naturalism with unusual, fast-paced editing and over-the-top silliness. There are stretches of the film that feel desperately real. It’s not difficult to imagine this scenario really happening, these people really being in power, the warnings being blatantly ignored, and the outcome turning out just as bad as it does in the final scenes. Still, Don’t Look Up is clearly a comedy. The film cuts through the harsh allusions to reality with quick cuts and unusual, comedic, fourth-wall-breaking editing. These elements remove viewers slightly from the fact that, in some ways, they’re watching the ultimate horror movie. The world is destroyed in a terrifying way, and only rich folks resume their lives on an uninhabited (by humans) planet. If the whole film would have felt real and natural, the comedy never would have emerged through the bleakness. It would be like watching Titanic with the knowledge that you’re on a similar ship. And, that kind of movie probably wouldn’t be the easiest thing to sell, nor would it be palatable enough to actually convey its message.


RELATED: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence & Adam McKay on ‘Don’t Look Up’ and the Politicization of Science

Similarly, the whole movie could have been a goofy comedy, but the point never would’ve been as poignant as it was. Don’t Look Up needed both the comedy and the drama to strike the specific tone it hits. This all culminates perfectly in the last scene (pre-credits) when the main characters are seated around the dinner table. Excellent writing, directing, and acting makes this scene feel relatable. It’s almost painfully real and raw and, frankly, scary. It’s easy to picture yourself and your family and friends trying desperately to cope and maintain calmness and normalcy as the world literally collapses around you. It makes Dr. Mindy’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) line, “We really did have everything, didn’t we?” hit almost as hard as the comet. The characters have found themselves talking about grinding their own coffee beans, and when faced with the idea of losing everything, it does make the tiny, taken-for-granted details of our daily lives feel lush and lavish and wonderful.


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Yet, when it comes time for the comet to hit, the scene is frozen, sparing viewers from seeing too much of the certain, gruesome outcome. For a film that is sometimes comprised of eye-roll-provoking heavy-handedness, it only gives viewers short bursts of reality amidst the noise. The film doesn’t let viewers linger in one place for too long.

Throughout the narrative, there are seemingly out-of-nowhere, fast-paced cuts to animals, nature, and babies crying, among other signs of life all over planet Earth. It reminds viewers that not only will the end of the world destroy Leonardo DiCaprio, movie stars, corrupt politicians, scientists, and us, but it will destroy everything. It acts to achieve something that is fairly challenging to accomplish in a veritable end-of-the-world movie: it actually makes it difficult to know where it’s going. This is reinforced by the pacing’s unpredictability paired with the cuts that give a feeling of randomness. When the comet is moments from hitting the earth, the narrative quickly flips back and forth between people reacting in the many ways people may react in a situation like this (drinking, panicking, throwing caution to the wind) back to the quiet dinner party. It lets moments breathe that one wouldn’t expect – like learning about Yule’s (Timothee Chalamet) religious views and how he got them. And, it speeds through other moments – like the downfall of Peter Isherwell’s (Mark Rylance) plan to save the world while still mining the comet. In an unorthodox and unexpected way, the movie’s pacing allows viewers to spend a little extra time in comforting moments and turn away during the too-harsh realities.


When watching Don’t Look Up, it’s difficult not to find both a bit of catharsis and a bit of dread. In its silliness, the movie still accepts an impossibly morbid fate. It delivers this message in an envelope that may seem chaotic and distracting to some. But, whether you like the movie or not, it manages to get its point across with a uniquely visceral delivery. It’s kind of like a spoonful of strange editing to make the medicine go down. In its gloom and silliness and truthfulness, Don’t Look Up feels like the chance to laugh at an inside joke that folks who have inhabited planet Earth for the past few years can all share.


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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Hitting the three-quarter-century mark usually means a retirement home, a nursing facility, or if you’re lucky to be blessed with relatively good health and savings to match, living in a gated community in Arizona or Florida.

For Sylvester Stallone, however, it means something else entirely: starring in the first superhero-centered film of his decades-long career in the much-delayed Samaritan. Unfortunately for Stallone and the audience on the other side of the screen, the derivative, turgid, forgettable results won’t get mentioned in a career retrospective, let alone among the ever-expanding list of must-see entries in a genre already well past its peak.

For Stallone, however, it’s better late than never when it involves the superhero genre. Maybe in getting a taste of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his walk-on role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel several years ago, Stallone thought anything Marvel can do, I can do even better (or just as good in the nebulous definition of the word).

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The property Stallone and his team found for him, Samaritan, a little-known graphic novel released by a small, almost negligible, publisher, certainly takes advantage of Stallone’s brute-force physicality and his often underrated talent for near-monosyllabic brooding (e.g., the Rambo series), but too often gives him to little do or say as the lone super-powered survivor, the so-called “Samaritan” of the title, of a lifelong rivalry with his brother, “Nemesis.” Two brothers entered a fire-ravaged building and while both were presumed dead, one brother did survive (Stallone’s Joe Smith, a garbageman by day, an appliance repairman by night).

In the Granite City of screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room, Season of the Witch), the United States, and presumably the rest of the world, teeters on economic and political collapse, with a recession spiraling into a depression, steady gigs difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, and the city’s neighborhoods rocked by crime and violence. No one’s safe, not even 13-year-old Sam (Javon Walker), Joe’s neighbor.

When he’s not dodging bullies connected to a gang, he’s falling under the undue influence of Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), a low-rent gang leader with an outsized ego and the conviction that he and only he can take on Nemesis’s mantle and along with that mantle, a hammer “forged in hate,” to orchestrate a Bane-like plan to plunge the city into chaos and become a wealthy power-broker in the process.

Schut’s woefully underwritten script takes a clumsy, haphazard approach to world-building, relying on a two-minute animated sequence to open Samaritan while a naive, worshipful Sam narrates Samaritan and Nemesis’s supposedly tragic, Cain and Abel-inspired backstory. Schut and director Julius Avery (Overlord) clumsily attempt to contrast Sam’s childish belief in messiah-like, superheroic saviors stepping in to save humanity from itself and its own worst excesses, but following that path leads to authoritarianism and fascism (ideas better, more thoroughly explored in Watchmen and The Boys).

While Sam continues to think otherwise, Stallone’s superhero, 25 years past his last, fatal encounter with his presumably deceased brother, obviously believes superheroes are the problem and not the solution (a somewhat reasonable position), but as Samaritan tracks Joe and Sam’s friendship, Sam giving Joe the son he never had, Joe giving Sam the father he lost to street violence well before the film’s opening scene, it gets closer and closer to embracing, if not outright endorsing Sam’s power fantasies, right through a literally and figuratively explosive ending. Might, as always, wins regardless of how righteous or justified the underlying action.

It’s what superhero audiences want, apparently, and what Samaritan uncritically delivers via a woefully under-rendered finale involving not just unconvincing CGI fire effects, but a videogame cut-scene quality Stallone in a late-film flashback sequence that’s meant to be subversively revelatory, but will instead lead to unintentional laughter for anyone who’s managed to sit the entirety of Samaritan’s one-hour and 40-minute running time.

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Samaritan is now streaming worldwide on Prime Video.

Samaritan

Cast
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton
  • Pilou Asbæk

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Matt Shakman Is In Talks To Direct ‘Fantastic Four’

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According to a new report, Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the upcoming MCU project, Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has been very hush-hush regarding Fantastic Four to the point where no official announcements have been made other than the film’s release date. No casting news or literally anything other than rumors has been released regarding the project. We know that Fantastic Four is slated for release on November 8th, 2024, and will be a part of Marvel’s Phase 6. There are also rumors that the cast of the new Fantastic Four will be announced at the D23 Expo on September 9th.

Fantastic Four is still over two years from release, and we assume we will hear more news about the project in the coming months. However, the idea of the Fantastic Four has already been introduced into the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The cameo was a huge deal for fans who have been waiting a long time for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU. When Disney acquired Twenty Century Fox in 2019 we assumed that the Fox Marvel characters would eventually make their way into the MCU. It’s been 3 years and we already have had an X-Men and Fantastic Four cameo – even if they were from another universe.

Deadline is reporting that Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four. Shakman served as the director for Wandavision and has had an extensive career. He directed two episodes of Game of Thrones and an episode of The Boys, and he had a long stint on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is nothing official yet, but Deadline’s sources say that Shakman is currently in talks for the job and things are headed in the right direction.

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To be honest, I was a bit more excited when Jon Watts was set to direct. I’m sure Shakman is a good director, but Watts proved he could handle a tentpole superhero film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wandavision was good, but Watts’ style would have been perfect for Fantastic Four. The film is probably one of the most anticipated films in Marvel’s upcoming slate films and they need to find the best person they can to direct. Is that Matt Shakman? It could be, but whoever takes the job must realize that Marvel has a lot riding on this movie. The other Fantastic Four films were awful and fans deserve better. Hopefully, Marvel knocks it out of the park as they usually do. You can see for yourself when Fantastic Four hits theaters on November 8th, 2024.

Film Synopsis: One of Marvel’s most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

Source: Deadline

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Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase Star in ‘Zombie Town’ Mystery Teen Romancer (Exclusive)

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Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase have entered Zombie Town, a mystery teen romancer based on author R.L. Stine’s book of the same name.

The indie, now shooting in Ontario, also stars Henry Czerny and co-teen leads Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe. The ensemble cast includes Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of the Canadian comedy show Kids in the Hall.

Canadian animator Peter Lepeniotis will direct Zombie Town. Stine’s kid’s book sees a quiet town upended when 12-year-old Mike and his friend, Karen, see a horror movie called Zombie Town and unexpectedly see the title characters leap off the screen and chase them through the theater.

Zombie Town will premiere in U.S. theaters before streaming on Hulu and then ABC Australia in 2023.

“We are delighted to bring the pages of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to the screen and equally thrilled to be working with such an exceptional cast and crew on this production. A three-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award winner with book sales of over $500 million, R.L. Stine has a phenomenal track record of crafting stories that engage and entertain audiences,” John Gillespie, Trimuse Entertainment founder and executive producer, said in a statement.

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Executive producers are Trimuse Entertainment, Toonz Media Group, Lookout Entertainment, Viva Pictures and Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates.  

Paco Alvarez and Mark Holdom of Trimuse negotiated the deal to acquire the rights to Stine’s Zombie Town book.

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