Don\u2019t Look Up<\/a> \u2013 which boasts his most star-studded cast to date \u2013 is something a little different again, although it skews far more closely to the style of those later efforts. Rather than taking aim at a real-life subject, McKay has this time turned his attention to an imagined worst-case scenario \u2013 what would happen if scientists proved beyond all reasonable doubt that a comet was headed for Earth, certain to destroy the planet?<\/p> It is, of course, a rather heavy-handed metaphor for global warming, and the lack of sufficient action taken by governments in the face of impending climate collapse. We follow various broadly sketched characters, from Meryl Streep\u2019s vain, polling-obsessed President to Mark Rylance\u2019s bizarre, self-aggrandising tech billionaire, and watch their all too predictable responses to the disastrous news. The result is a somewhat overstuffed film that has all the sledgehammer subtlety you\u2019d expect from an apocalyptic satire about a world-ending comet, but it does manage to deliver some good laughs \u2013 and enjoyable performances \u2013 along the way.<\/p>\n
The setup is as follows: Ph.D. candidate Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) is mumbling along to a Wu-Tang Clan song in her lab when she makes a startling discovery \u2013 a previously unknown comet has entered the earth\u2019s atmosphere. At first, this seems like good news, but when Kate\u2019s supervisor Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio) arrives on the scene and does some quick calculations it slowly dawns on them that this is not cause for celebration: the comet is on a direct collision course for Earth. And so Kate and Randall work as quickly as they can to alert the authorities to the catastrophic news, and soon find themselves on a long press tour to warn the public what lies in store.<\/p>\n