If there were Oscars given in/with regard to’concerning’regarding casting (sort it, Academy), Francine Maisler would be a shoo-in in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the 2022 gong. For, as well as Dune and Being The Ricardos, Maisler has assembled debatably the most stacked cast of the year in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Don’t Look Up. Actors identifiable by first names merely’barely : Leo; Meryl; Cate; Jonah; Timothée. The pulling power is both director Adam McKay (The Big Short and Vice turned him into a thesp-magnate) and the premise. Don’t Look Up is essentially Deep Impact played in/with regard to’concerning’regarding yuks, Armageddon if it had a brain. It might bite off more than it can chew, but it is frequently funny, highly ambitious brain-food. If you claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate this is a Leonardo DiCaprio environmental vanity project, then claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate again.###McKay uses the plot-core of two astronomers, Dr Randall Minty (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Dr Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), fast-tracked to the White House after discovering an extinction-level comet heading directly in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Earth, as a means to satirise pretty much e grossly aspect of modern life; from do-rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent ing billionaires to social-media break-ups, cheery breakfast-reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue banter to geo-politics. But McKay reserves his sharpest taracquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ing in/with regard to’concerning’regarding nepotistic Republican politicians in the shape of President Orlean (Streep, aces), a chain-smoking chief whose policy in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the poor suggests they should pick “better lottery numbers”, and her Chief Of Staff and son Jason (Jonah Hill, coming on perfectly like a Trump kid) who in the darkest moment says a prayer in/with regard to’concerning’regarding “dope stuff”. In his political wheelhouse, McKay’s satire feels both too funny to be true and spot-on.###Lawrence and DiCaprio are likeable if not especially complex guides through the tangle’din .###Getting short shrift from the Oval Office, Randall and Kate go off script to bring the ‘Planet Killer’ to the world’s attention, meeting a gallery of rich characters in the process: a Musk-esque tech giant (Mark Rylance) who bought the Gutenberg Bible and lost it; relentlessly upbeat morning-reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue hosts (Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett); a pop star (Ariana Grande) who maintain’sustain s a manatee sanctuary and flip-flops on the does-the-comet-exist? debate; and a religious skater-boi (Timothée Chalamet), who sweetly provides Kate with some much-needed solace.###Lawrence and DiCaprio are likeable if not especially complex guides through the tangle’din , the in/with regard to’concerning’regarding mer all Lisbeth Salander haircut and attitude, the latter a bag of nerves and ailments (aldespite’in spite of’albeit he acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s a great Peter-Finch-In-Network meltdown). McKay’s direction sometimes moves at the clip of a disaster movie (the space shuttle launches are genuinely impressive) and at other times pauses in/with regard to’concerning’regarding montages depicting life just carrying on in the face of impending destruction. It’s a film with regards to’concerning’with respect to intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully modern malaises: how we fail to take personal responsibility, be it in relationships or on the political stage; how expertise is constantly undermined; and how truth in news is moribund. There’s perhaps too much going on and not all of it works. Still, McKay sticks the ending eye-catching’good-shaped’appealing’charming’fascinating’gorgeous ly, adding a killer sting that hopefully Netflix’s end-credits-interrupting technology won’t ruin — perhaps the merely’barely 21st-century evil Don’t Look Up doesn’t skewer.