There’s long been the argument from cinephiles that films released directly on Netflix, even some of their biggest hits from “Extraction” to “Red Notice,” don’t really generate much water cooler chatter or online discussion.
That’s not the case with Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up”. The disaster comedy yielded mixed critical reviews upon release directly on the service at Christmas, the movie pulling in a 55% (6.2/10) score on Rotten Tomatoes.
However far more interesting has been the subsequent word-of-mouth about the film which has polarised the audience. Some are praising it as a smart, witty, take-no-prisoners satire. Others despise it as a smug, unsubtle and bloated yellfest, and there’s seemingly not a lot of (at least vocal) people in between.
The discourse has gotten heated and both McKay and co-writer David Sirota have also seemingly been stirring the pot on social media with postings (here and here) implying those who don’t like it don’t understand, don’t get or don’t agree with its rather blatant climate crisis metaphor as opposed to not liking the actual film itself.
Combined with a movie that boasts plenty of star power with large and very active social media fanbases, a backlash soon emerged against film critics and others who were cold on the movie, with even climate scientists soon getting involved in pieces like on in The Guardian the other day.
A report in Variety today indicates that while Oscar voters care little for online chatter, the sheer amount of it surrounding the film is likely to have an impact on voters who will make viewing it more of a priority over other films in consideration.
We’re still over a month away from the announcement of the Oscar nominations on February 8th. Whether McKay’s film will prove a serious contender – we’ll have to wait and see.
