'Don't Look Up' review: A-list cast can't save painful satire

WHAT IT'S ABOUT If several tables at a Hollywood awards ceremony had been cast in the same movie it might look something like "Don't Look Up," the newest Adam McKay satire.

Take a deep breath and take in the cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Ariana Grande, Timothée Chalamet, Scott Mescudi (the influential hip-hop star Kid Cudi), Rob Morgan, Ron Perlman, Melanie Lynskey, Mark Rylance, Himesh Patel and more.

This never-ending parade of A-listers assembles for the story of astronomers Randall Mindy (DiCaprio) and Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence), who discover a comet that's big enough to wipe out humanity and hurtling toward Earth to make impact in just over six months.

They sound the alarms through the appropriate channels, but find nothing but skepticism on the part of a White House run by President Janie Orlean (Streep), who seems more interested in snuffing out scandals and scoring cheap political points than taking her job seriously.

Things don't go better when it comes to bringing the message of our impending destruction to the general public via the media, where they're laughed off and turned into internet memes.

The movie is now playing in limited theatrical release ahead of its Netflix premiere on Dec. 24.

MY SAY After beginning his filmmaking career with Will Ferrell comedies, Adam McKay has established a clear interest in darkly comic, self-referential takes on major sociopolitical subjects.

His last two movies tell the story: McKay took on the housing bubble and the 2008 financial crisis in "The Big Short" and the life and times of Dick Cheney in "Vice."

"Don't Look Up" finds McKay pursuing his biggest target yet: the existential threat of the climate crisis and the self-indulgence of a society that often seems more interested in the latest TikTok trend or celebrity shenanigans.

The effort falls flat instantaneously and never recovers.

There's nothing more excruciating than watching very famous people work entirely too hard to be funny.

That's exactly what happens with a large chunk of the ensemble here. DiCaprio sweats and strains as his nervous, overwhelmed character, and generates not a single laugh. Streep is rarely miscast but has been here, presenting Janie Orlean as a broad caricature. Lawrence, making a return to the screen after a couple of years away, is given little to do but snap at people.

Other actors fare better — Perry and Blanchett are entertaining as morning show hosts, and Rylance brings such a singular weirdness to his performance as a billionaire tech entrepreneur that you wish the whole movie had been about him.

Had McKay narrowed his focus and scaled back the ambition to, say, take on Rylance's Elon Musk-like character and scrapped the rest of it, "Don't Look Up" might have worked differently. But he wants this movie to serve as a sweeping indictment of an entire society that has descended into a state of constant, idiotic mania.

It's entirely too much for a single movie to take on, especially one crafted so broadly. McKay's idea of incisive satire is to have a sequence geared around audiences caring more about the love life of pop star Riley Bina (Grande) than the impending global catastrophe. What a stunning revelation.

There's also something smarmy and off-putting about all these famous people gathering together to make fun of their audience, to show us how we're all easily distracted rubes.

BOTTOM LINE Don't be fooled by all these stars: "Don't Look Up" is a serious waste of time.