Don't look up.
There is a service called Netflix.
Don't Look Up is the top movie on the service, and will be streamed over 100 million hours in its first week, which will land it on the service's list of its most popular original films ever.
That is not a big deal, since the cast of the film has enough Oscars between them to build a little fort. The success of the movie has resulted in a strange new narrative.
The idea is that if critics don't like the movie, they must hate it because it shows how dangerous climate change is. Adam McKay seems to imply that they didn't understand it.
If you don't recommend Don't Look Up as a movie, you don't care about climate change.
I am not sure if I have ever seen this kind of debate before, but it shows a divide between the audience and the critics, which happens all the time, but filmmakers, actors and scientists on one side, and critics, who are being scolded for being too harsh when the issue is
Over half of critics liked the movie and would probably recommend it, if it had a 55% score. All critics are lumped together the same way. Not liking a movie doesn't mean you disagree with the message of the movie.
This seems very obvious? This is the debate that is going on. Pajiba sums it up best.
Don't Look Up didn't work well as a comedy film. The central joke that the meteor is climate change is hammered into your head so many times that the unsubtlety is almost distraction. The film isn't quite screwball enough, despite its Oscar winning cast. It is fine. I didn't like it, but I don't regret watching it.
Climate change is an issue that I think is urgent. I am about to have a child. I want that kid to be able to live in a world where Miami and a thousand other coastal cities are not underwater. This is important to me and reflected in my voting habits.
There is a big difference here. You can't just give a 5 star review to every movie that you agree with. I see a lot of political movies. Elysium is a sci-fi movie that was a clear example of wealth inequality. It was a bad movie. The message does not change that.
Don't Look Up comes off as condescending. The response to critics after the fact has been condescending, including McKay's "if you don't get this you're like a robot trying to understand human emotion" take.
I think it is a good thing that Don't Look Up is the most popular movie in America right now, as it will encourage more and more people to think about the realities of climate change and what happens when we don't listen to scientists. I don't agree that I have to say that Don't Look Up is a great film, or that I have to contribute to damaging its message. That isn't how this works.
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