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Don’t Look Up is an absurdist mirror of our reality — before it just becomes a regular mirror

Netflix’s latest star-laden film is an emotional ride through the absurd.

By Andrew Webster , an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

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For a goofy satire about a comet destroying the planet, Don’t Look Up sure takes you on an emotional journey. The film — helmed by writer and director Adam McKay, best-known for movies like Step Brothers and Anchorman — starts out hilarious, with big-name stars trading one-liners amid an impending apocalypse. But over its lengthy runtime, it slowly morphs into something else. Laughs give way to anger, frustration, and ultimately a kind of desperate hope. It’s a trajectory that serves as an eerie mirror to the last two years of pandemic life — just don’t go in expecting lighthearted fun.

Don’t Look Up doesn’t waste any time getting going. It starts out with a pair of Michigan State astronomers, Randall (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Kate (Jennifer Lawrence), discovering a massive comet in the sky that’s somewhere between five and 10 kilometers wide. But the excitement of discovery quickly turns to dread, as the pair realize that it’s on a collision course with Earth, and it will cause an extinction-level event in around six months. They rush to the White House to inform the president, played by Meryl Streep, only to be left waiting for hours as she deals with a much more pressing dilemma involving nude models. What follows is a delightfully goofy exchange, where the president and her chief of staff (Jonah Hill) who is also her self-absorbed son, debate the political ramifications of revealing that everyone is about to die ahead of midterms. “The timing, it’s just atrocious,” the president tells them, while noting that she’ll have her own people — from an Ivy League school, of course — assess things.

It would all be absurd if it didn’t feel so close to reality. What should be the only thing that matters to everyone on the planet — finding a way to avoid the destruction of all life — gets drowned out by election season and, later, a celebrity breakup. Early on, this contrast is played up for laughs; the astronomers struggle to get their message across because no one wants to hear bad news. They go on a talk show where they’re told to keep things light. When Kate (Lawrence) explodes in frustration and tells the hosts that everyone is going to die, she becomes a meme.

The absurdism that mirrors our own reality a little too neatly is helped along by a tremendous cast. This movie is stacked with talent. I could watch Streep and Hill banter all day long, and Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi are perfectly cast as the on again, off again pop star power couple. Meanwhile, Lawrence does an amazing job of channeling the anger I know I’d be feeling in her position. Other actors do great work with smaller-but-vital roles; Timothée Chalamet as a painfully earnest Twitch streamer / skate punk, Ron Perlman as a definitely racist war hero. Everyone brings it.

But slowly that good humor gives way and Don’t Look Up gets uncomfortably real. Once the message gets out there, it becomes polarizing. Randall (DiCaprio) turns into a social media star, a hunky scientist who is the face of the government’s constantly shifting plan to try to deflect the comet, while Kate becomes a pariah because of her realist attitude. A chunk of space rock that will eviscerate life on Earth ends up creating political divides. Some are terrified, others don’t believe it’s even real. While working class voters turn hopeful about the jobs the comet will provide, an evil tech mogul salivates at all of the rare Earth metals it contains. At one point Randall is forced to ask: what’s the point of trillions of dollars if we’re all dead? He’s laughed out of the room.

It’s infuriating watching the population argue instead of work together to ensure their literal survival. Sadly, little of the movie seems far-fetched given… well, the past two years on the real planet Earth. We’ve all seen the divides that come from a true existential crisis during the pandemic, and Don’t Look Up is an uncanny reflection of that reality. You could call aspects of it goofy or unrealistic, but then again many of us spent the early days of the pandemic learning to bake bread while watching Tiger King . Don’t Look Up exaggerates a bit, but it’s not too far off the mark.

It stretches on perhaps a little too long — the movie clocks in at nearly two and a half hours — but the journey Don’t Look Up takes viewers on is mesmerizing. I went from laughing at the absurdity of a military general scamming some astronomers out of $20 to being genuinely mad at everyone not only ignoring the obvious but, in some cases, rooting for the damn comet. Toward the end, when the collision becomes impossible to ignore, I just felt bad for everyone involved. Don’t Look Up has a largely dismal outlook on humanity, but it ends on a surprisingly hopeful note. (You should definitely stick around for the credits where it wraps back around to being hilarious.)

I’m not sure if the film made me realize anything new about myself or life during the pandemic, but it was certainly cathartic to see it all play out in such dramatic fashion.

Don’t Look Up is coming to select theaters on December 10th, before hitting Netflix on December 24th.

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‘Don’t Look Up’ is a darkly funny satire that resonates in the COVID-19 era

Adam mckay's star-studded romp targets politicians, the media, big tech, and human nature itself..

By Kevin Slane

What would you do if you found out a giant comet would destroy the planet in six months? Would you live every moment with intention, maximizing your time with loved ones? Would you go off the rails and indulge in every hedonistic impulse? Or, as Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” theorizes, would you be one of the tens of millions who simply ignore the reality of scientific consensus and put their faith in a toxic mixture of snake-oil salesmen and the loudest, angriest authority figures from the political party or cable network of their choice?

That’s the central question at the heart of “Don’t Look Up,” a satire that was conceptualized prior to the COVID-19 pandemic but feels all the more timely given the events of the last two years. At times, McKay’s climate change parable (which hits theaters Dec. 10 before debuting on Netflix on Dec. 24) can be heavy-handed, and its satire — which targets politicians, the media, and big tech alike — can occasionally miss the mark. But the director of “Anchorman” and “The Big Short” has managed to create a darkly funny film that will resonate with audiences fed up with the state of the world.

Gazing through a telescope at Michigan Student University, Wu-Tang Clan blaring in her earbuds, astronomy PhD. candidate Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) makes a startling discovery: A comet with the size and velocity of a “planet killer” is headed directly toward Earth. After confiding with her advisor, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), the two are quickly whisked to Washington D.C., where they are joined by veteran NASA official Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) in a quest to inform president Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep) about the imminent calamity.

Orlean and her chief of staff/son, Jason Orlean (Jonah Hill), barely listen to the astronomer’s warnings, focusing instead on the pressing issue of their supremely unqualified supreme court nominee’s latest gaffe. Besides, the administration’s appointed scientists, including the head of NASA (a businesswoman with no astronomy experience) say everything is fine.

Early reviews call ‘Don’t Look Up’ an Oscar contender and the funniest film of the year

Leonardo dicaprio and jennifer lawrence roam boston trying to save the world in ‘don’t look up’ trailer.

Stymied, the trio of scientists leak news of the comet to the fictional New York Herald , only to see the news bumped from the headlines by the breakup of celebrity musicians Riley Bina and DJ Chello (played by real-life musicians Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi). Later on, when President Orlean decides that it’s time to reconsider the threat, it’s mostly because she’s seeking to distract from a steamy scandal involving her and the aforementioned supreme court nominee.

Even with the Orlean administration now (somewhat) in their corner, the astronomers find it tough to make the world care. When Kate and Randall are booked on “The Daily Rip,” the questions from co-hosts Brie Evantee (Cate Blanchett) and Jack Bremmer (Tyler Perry) are pure fluff. Kate loses her cool and walks off the set, and is quickly sidelined in future media appearances. In her absence, Randall ascends, playing the handsome, charismatic scientist who can answer the media’s softball questions with a smile and tell the world that everything will be OK.

Over a three-decade career launched in the writers’ room of  “Saturday Night Live,” McKay has proven that he knows how to get a laugh. The film’s script, co-written by political commentator David Sirota, is full of clever one-liners and quips. With the Orlean administration, McKay and Sirota have successfully skewered the Trump presidency more fully than every Alec Baldwin “SNL” skit combined. The film’s satire of the media ecosystem is also well observed, with “The Daily Rip” a perfect stand-in for the pull-all-punches puffery of shows like “TODAY” and “Good Morning America” that are all style and no substance. 

With such a huge assemblage of on-screen talent (many of whom caused quite a stir while the movie filmed in the Boston area in 2020 and 2021), the performances in “Don’t Look Up” are solid. Hill, in particular, plays the part of a proudly uninformed power broker to perfection, peppering Kate and Randall with sneering put-downs at every turn. As Mindy, DiCaprio is asked to do the heaviest lifting, and he succeeds 90 percent of the time, believably portraying the astronomer’s transformation from a nebbish, panicky stargazer into a bonafide celebrity. Even minor roles, like Boston natives Michael Chiklis (as a blowhard cable news host) and Chris Evans (as an oblivious movie star) add to the expansive world of the film.

For all its success in poking fun at American politics and corporate media, “Don’t Look Up” misses the mark with its attempted send-up of big tech. The billionaire CEO of fictional tech company BASH, Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance), appears only briefly in the first half of the film, telling an audience about the company’s new product, a device that senses any negative emotion a person has and suppresses it with cute animal videos. As Isherwell, Rylance speaks in a strangely pitched and breathy squeak of a voice that serves no narrative purpose and is deeply off-putting. When he reenters the picture almost an hour later, his sudden prominence feels unexpected and under-explained, perhaps the result of one too many deleted scenes.

By and large, “Don’t Look Up” is unsubtle by design: In real life, McKay and Sirota have argued that the global response to climate change should be analogous to the looming disaster in their film. For most of the movie’s runtime, McKay avoids his unfortunate tendency to over-explain, an issue that rendered his 2018 Dick Cheney satire, “Vice,” an unwatchable mess of fourth-wall-breaking pomposity. But McKay occasionally indulges, to the film’s detriment. Four or five separate times, a scene suddenly cuts to a screensaver-like montage of ambient nature footage, circling and underlining and starring in thick red pen the preciousness of life. Near the film’s climax, DiCaprio is given a scene-chewing speech that evokes Peter Finch’s iconic diatribe in “Network,” a shouty, finger-pointing diatribe that spells out the film’s thesis statement syllable by syllable. Given how DiCaprio has played Dr. Mindy for nearly two hours, the scene feels entirely out of character.

The Takeaway

Despite occasional missteps, “Don’t Look Up” is a darkly funny movie that offers razor-sharp satire of wholly deserving targets. True to the filmmaker’s intent, “Don’t Look Up” also sounds a clarion call for immediate climate change action, while also drawing parallels to the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Should I watch “Don’t Look Up”?

Viewers who wish our last president was still in office may not love “Don’t Look Up,” but for most viewers the film is a fun, thought-provoking watch, whether in theaters or at home on Netflix.

Rating: 3 stars (out of 4).

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Review: ‘Don’t Look Up,’ but there’s a scattershot satire headed your way on Netflix

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The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials .

Late into the unwieldy end-of-days satire “Don’t Look Up,” writer-director Adam McKay briefly sets aside the easy snark and broad targets and reaches for a note of awe. He just about hits it. An enormous comet has appeared in the night sky, finally visible to the naked eye after having spent months making a beeline for Earth. It’s a terrifying sight but also a sublime one, a vision of inexorably approaching doom that — with an assist from a teary-eyed Leonardo DiCaprio and a gorgeously churning score by “Succession’s” Nicholas Britell — can’t help but stir a collective sense of wonder.

A moment like that stands in pointed opposition to the social malaise being diagnosed in “Don’t Look Up,” a semi-sweet, mostly sour comic dispatch from a world where wonder is for dummies and collective unity is a joke. A pre-apocalyptic satire about mass-media cynicism, political cronyism, Big Tech corruption, general American stupidity and anything else McKay and his co-writer, David Sirota, can squeeze into their crowded fish barrel, the movie is also its own high-concept genre collision, one that we might describe as Armageddon Iannucci . We are jolted along by an end-of-days blockbuster like “Deep Impact” (the art-house-inclined can throw in “Melancholia” ) but also swept up in a behind-the-scenes realpolitik farce like “Dr. Strangelove” or “In the Loop.”

Those are daunting inspirations in service of a reasonably inspired premise. It begins with a Michigan State PhD candidate, Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), peering into the heavens and making a startling astronomical discovery. Comet Dibiasky, as it will be known, is speeding toward Earth and will make impact in a little more than six months; given that the comet is roughly 5 to 10 kilometers wide, it’s designated a “planet killer,” an extinction-level event waiting to happen. Dibiasky and her twitchy mentor, Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio), report their findings to NASA and are promptly flown out to the White House, where their shock, pride and anxiety at being the bearers of such bad news are swiftly derailed by their utter disbelief at the corruption and incompetence that await them.

McKay and Sirota, a journalist and former advisor/speechwriter for the 2020 Bernie Sanders campaign, serve up a smorgasbord of satirical jabs plucked from the political detritus of the past four years and beyond: Oval Office nepotism, grossly unqualified Supreme Court picks, midterm election anxieties, war-room photo ops, sex scandals. The president, Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep), is a hack and a buffoon surrounded by many, none more poisonous than her high-ranking son, Jason (Jonah Hill in relentless insult-comic mode). She wastes no time minimalizing, trivializing and even flat-out ignoring the scientists’ findings, dismissing them as the latest of many exaggerated doomsday proclamations to cross her desk.

These scenes would be funnier if they were more incisively written (or at least more cleverly improvised), and also if the movie seemed to be actively critiquing rather than merely embodying the laziness of its targets. (Streep, who played a sharper politician in “The Manchurian Candidate” and a nicer Orlean in “Adaptation,” is here reduced to smirking reaction shots in a rare witless turn.) They also would be funnier if there weren’t a surfeit of depressing real-world evidence to back up the movie’s depressing conclusions.

What if the world were ending and no one gave a damn, including most of the people in a position to actually do something about it? That’s been more or less the decades-long story of climate change, which provided the original impetus for McKay’s satire (and surely helped secure DiCaprio’s interest ). But that allegorical dimension has since been temporarily eclipsed by the COVID-19 pandemic, whose rampant misinformation campaigns have caused hundreds of thousands of pointless, preventable human deaths.

The comet’s death toll of course looks to be in the billions, which spurs Dibiasky and Mindy to disregard the president’s confidentiality orders and take their story public. But the news and entertainment media, much like the government they ostensibly exist to cover and critique, turn out to be no more interested in the substance of what the scientists have to say. A well-matched Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry play a couple of morning talk-show chuckleheads who turn our heroes into inadvertent celebrities, though markedly different ones. While Mindy’s charming awkwardness quickly makes him America’s sexiest scientist (on par with a younger Dr. Fauci), Dibiasky’s expletive-laced on-air meltdown makes her a figure of instant ridicule — the butt of a joke shared by millions of merry consumers who prefer to meme and hashtag while Rome burns.

There’s an obvious strain of sexism in how Mindy and Dibiasky are received, and “Don’t Look Up,” again, has a way of subtly reinforcing what it’s ostensibly calling out. Both lead actors have dowdied themselves up to play a couple of Midwestern nerds: DiCaprio with plaid shirts and a thick beard, Lawrence with an auburn dye job and nose piercings. But there’s something telling (and selectively star-flattering) about the way Mindy is written as an Insta-thirst object, threatening his marriage (to a wonderful Melanie Lynskey), while Dibiasky gets called things like “Boy With the Dragon Tattoo.” (OK, I laughed, but I winced.) It’s also telling that when Mindy gets his own expletive-laced on-air meltdown in the second act, reaching for a real Peter-Finch-in-“Network” moment, it’s played for gravitas rather than ridicule.

I mention this because the unequal treatment of the sexes is hardly incidental to McKay’s project (or, for that matter, his earlier movies, from the bro-comedy highs of “Anchorman” and “Step Brothers” to the aggressively topical likes of “The Big Short” and “Vice”). It supplies “Don’t Look Up” with a satirical thrust, a narrative engine and an overall atmosphere as thin and spotty as the one separating us from all those Earth-bound projectiles. The movie does try to right the balance too, partly through Streep’s blandly Trumpy commander-in-chief, and more successfully via Blanchett’s Mika Brzezinski-esque anchor, who’s shown concealing her own impressive intellect behind a camera-ready mega-watt smile.

It also helps that DiCaprio and Lawrence have solid lead-duo chemistry, forging an emotional connection born of mutual respect and serious intellectual credentials. (Lawrence gets a particularly juicy comic bit I won’t spoil, except to say that it sneaks up on you a little more and kills a little harder each time.) And you can’t help but feel for Mindy and Dibiasky, who are the canaries in this movie’s late-capitalist coal mine, two malfunctioning cogs in the mind-numbing machine that our 21st century society has become. Their gravest enemy is not the president so much as an Orwellian billionaire tech visionary (Mark Rylance), who dreams of global domination and gives off an obvious whiff of Bezos, Branson and Musk.

Rylance, as always, has his moments. But his character, scarily white teeth notwithstanding, exemplifies the fundamental toothlessness of a satire whose targets are somehow too specific to seem imaginative but also too vague to land a real blow. The fault is not McKay and Sirota’s alone. Watching “Don’t Look Up,” with its mix of occasional big laughs (the Ariana Grande number legitimately slays) and scattershot non sequiturs, I couldn’t help but fear for the long-term viability of the Hollywood media-political satire as a genre.

Nothing about the foolishness and outrageousness of what the movie shows us — no matter how virtuosically sliced and diced by McKay’s characteristically jittery editor, Hank Corwin — can really compete with the horrors of our real-world American idiocracy. (But speaking of which: Would it have killed the movie to define the world as something bigger than the U.S. of A.?)

In “Don’t Look Up,” evil is finally too banal to be funny (though as one character aptly points out, “They’re not even smart enough to be as evil as you’re giving them credit for”). Goodness, however, can still generate a shockwave of feeling, and the best moments here make the case for small, redemptive acts of decency in the face of the unthinkable. I wish Rob Morgan’s NASA expert had more to do here besides stand in silent contempt of all the inanity swirling around him. I also wouldn’t have minded more of Timothée Chalamet as the sweetly sincere Christian skateboarder who kick-flips his way into Dibiasky’s life. He shows up late but you’re grateful regardless; he makes the end that much more of a mercy.

‘Don’t Look Up’

Rating: R, for language throughout, some sexual content, graphic nudity and drug content Running time: 2 hours, 18 minutes Playing: Starts Dec. 10 in general release; available Dec. 24 on Netflix

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Don’t Look Up is a hellishly unfunny ride through The Discourse

Even wildly talented actors can’t save a movie that repeats arguments we have every day

by Joshua Rivera

There’s dark credibility to Don’t Look Up , director Adam McKay’s gallows humor Netflix comedy about the end of the world. In it, scientists discover that a planet-killing comet is heading directly for Earth, and our window for averting extinction is incredibly narrow. When this urgent news is brought to the United States government, the response is one that is extremely plausible: doing nothing.

This isn’t so much a profound insight as a reasonable conclusion drawn from current events. Recurring gun violence, civil rights crises, or the ongoing pandemic response are all proof positive for a political reality defined by inaction, where needles only move when lawmakers’ careers — or private sector profits — are at stake. Don’t Look Up has little to offer beyond this, and even fewer laughs.

The film begins with astronomy student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovering an unidentified comet. What starts as an exciting find for a budding astronomer quickly turns to horror as she and her professor, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), calculate the comet’s trajectory, finding that it’s on a collision course with Earth.

Written by McKay from a story by the filmmaker and political wonk David Sirota, Don’t Look Up is a 138-minute tour through what we, for lack of a better term, can call The Discourse, the cultural-political attention economy through which major events are filtered by way of many competing interests. It starts at the top: The president (Meryl Streep) waves off Kate and Dr. Mindy’s news because she’s so consumed by political scandal that she can’t even meet with them for an entire day. She’s too busy figuring out how to respond to her Supreme Court nominee’s nudes being leaked.

Dismissed by the government, Kate and Dr. Mindy turn to the media. The reception isn’t any better. Traditional publications are interested only in social media engagement, and they back away under the threat of a lawsuit, while a daytime TV show is mostly interested in Randall’s meme-worthy good looks. For the general public, the meteor becomes a litmus test for personal politics.

Great performances keep Don’t Look Up afloat, if only barely. Tyler Perry and Cate Blanchett are delightfully banal talk show hosts, Timothée Chalamet is a late-game breath of fresh air as a born-again skater punk, and Lawrence and DiCaprio are both actors so talented that the hope that McKay can turn things around by the end never quite extinguishes.

In all this, Don’t Look Up becomes a work of well-acted exhaustion. It’s not very interesting to see this cycle play out in a hypothetical context because this particular media circus is already repeated ad nauseum. McKay wastes his talented ensemble by having them labor in the service of virtually nothing, as his film has little to say about why we are trapped in these cycles, and it doesn’t seem to offer anything beyond the greatest hits of a bad few months online. If the jokes about daytime television, internet memes, or political ineptitude were funnier, this would be forgivable. Humor is subjective, but giving an example of Don’t Look Up ’s specific jokes feels like a spoiler, depriving you of one of the three times you’ll likely experience a genuine laugh.

McKay’s previous satirical comedies The Big Short and Vice , while divisive, were clearly focused on the powerful. They were cynical works about the cynicism of American economics and politics, operating from the presumption that the audience for each had been kept in the dark on their subjects. This was easy to get on board with when The Big Short digestibly broke down the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis , and arguably less so when Vice delved into the career of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Don’t Look Up doesn’t have as clear of a target, so instead it swings at everyone. Its worst parts are when it stops to show people on their phones. They tweet inanity, they participate in dumb viral challenges, they tune into propaganda and formulate conspiracy theory. At no point does Don’t Look Up ’s script demonstrate an interest in why these people do these things, or what causes these online phenomena. Despite this being a central aspect of his story, McKay doesn’t seem to think it worthy of consideration. There’s a word for that: contempt.

Don’t Look Up is currently playing in theaters and will premiere on Netflix on Dec. 24.

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‘Don’t Look Up’ Review: Adam McKay’s Depressing Netflix Comedy Slogs Toward the Apocalypse

David ehrlich.

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In the beginning, there was light. And then, there were movies. And then, not long after that, there were people who watched those movies and snarked, “Well, that’s two hours I’ll never get back” (though it wouldn’t be surprising if that barb originated before the advent of multiple-reel cinema, maybe with some monocled jackass who wasted an entire minute of his life at a screening of William Heise’s 1896 short “The Kiss” only to discover that there wasn’t any tongue). As Charlie Kaufman is fond of pointing out , however, every two hours is two hours that you’ll never get back. It doesn’t matter if a movie is good or bad or anything in between: At the end of the day, we cannot hoard our time.

And yet, for all of the truth contained in that wisdom, certain films make it almost impossible to shake the feeling that cinema — the most palpably fourth-dimensional of all popular art forms — possesses an unrivaled ability to make us appreciate how we can waste it. Adam McKay ’s “Don’t Look Up” is nothing if not one of those films.

A star-studded comedy of terrors that boasts more A-list celebrities than actual laughs, “Don’t Look Up” may be the most interminable “Oscar movie” of the year (and just when it seemed like “Being the Ricardos” was finally on track to win something!), but it would be wrong to write it off as just “two hours you’ll never get back.” For one thing, it actually runs two hours and 18 minutes, including a couple of sadistic bonus scenes during the end credits that stretch the premise’s one basic joke to astronomical new lengths. For another, wasted time isn’t merely the function of McKay’s ultra-depressing farce, it’s also the central focus of a film that begs viewers to do something better with the time they have left.

Is “Don’t Look Up” further proof that self-importance has dulled one of Hollywood’s funniest minds? I’m afraid so. Prestige is one hell of a drug, and McKay’s descent from the galaxy brain genius of “Step Brothers” to the winky-winky self-importance of his recent work has been like watching the world’s greatest jazz musician discover auto-tune and fall in love with the sound of their own voice. (McKay’s new film is less aggravating than “Vice,” but all the more painful for being so tone-deaf to the stripe of comic absurdism that he helped to invent.) Does this sped-up satire — yes, it’s a farce and a satire — about humanity’s collective unwillingness to confront the threat of climate change perversely strengthen its point by surrendering to the same magical thinking that it exists to decry? A little, yeah!

As one of McKay’s many characters surmises as a comet the size of Mt. Everest hurtles towards Earth: “We really did have everything, didn’t we?” For better or worse, here is a movie that epitomizes what it means to have too much and not enough at the same time.

The above genuflection belongs to second-tier astronomy professor Dr. Randall Mindy (a bookish and bearded Leonardo DiCaprio , whose relatively toothless performance as a human “Far Side” cartoon is good enough for him to get away with prioritizing his cause above his craft). It’s while working in Randall’s lab late one night that one of his underlings spots a strange object on the other end of a telescope. Her name is Kate Dibiasky, she’s played by a headstrong Jennifer Lawrence — sharp in a largely thankless role as the straight-woman — and she immediately pukes into a bucket upon discovering that the comet will extinguish all life as we know it when it collides with our planet in six months. McKay’s decision to drop the title treatment over a freeze-frame of Lawrence’s barf so comprehensively distills the “we’re so fucked it isn’t funny” tone of the movie that the next 900 scenes can’t help but feel a bit redundant.

From there, “Don’t Look Up” unfolds like a sort of present-tense riff on “Idiocracy,” which feels redundant in a different and more nauseating way — it’s “Idiocracy” reframed not as a cock-eyed look at the future we’re creating, but rather as a eulogy for the one that we’ve already let slip away. By the time that Randall and Kate are in the Oval Office sharing the grim news of our impending doom with the disinterested, election-obsessed President (Susan?) Orlean ( Meryl Streep , punching far below her weight class as a Trump caricature in #StrongerTogether drag), this film has assumed such a frightful resemblance to the recent past that entire scenes plunge headlong into the uncanny valley that separates history from satire, and jokes from their punchlines.

Some of that strangeness can’t be helped, and even serves as a testament to its creator’s foresight. “Don’t Look Up” has the misfortune of being too prophetic; when McKay wrote a broad comedy about the self-destructive myopia that appears to have doomed our species, he had no way of knowing that a much faster nightmare would come along eight seconds later and make it feel more like a documentary. Conceived before COVID and shot during the pandemic, McKay’s film may have been written in the vein of “Dr. Strangelove,” but it plays more like one of those lazy “SNL” cold opens that just regurgitates the week’s most tragic events in the hope of forcing them into farce.

Then again, this movie was never going to be funny. If McKay deserves credit for his script’s big-picture commitment to the notion of denial as an evolutionary flaw — for acutely rendering climate change not as an imaginary criss, but a crisis of the imagination — the average scene in “Don’t Look Up” is still as toothless as a fourth-line hockey player.

The Oval Office meeting is typical of a film that seems to think its challenging premise might absolve its JibJab-level jokes. On one side of the room, Streep carps about how the comet might hurt her party in the midterms (“The timing is just atrocious,” she says, as if reviewing the movie around her in real-time) while her large adult son and toadying chief of staff lazily roasts his mother’s guests (he’s played by Jonah Hill, whose reunion with DiCaprio left this critic pining for the savage hilarity they brought to “The Wolf of Wall Street”). At one point, McKay shows us a framed photograph of President Orlean posing with Steven Seagal, which might have been chuckle-worthy if the man Streep were parodying didn’t famously take the same picture with Kid Rock.

The yawning, telethon-sized gap between the legendary talent in this movie and the limp material they’re asked to perform is almost as wide as that which separates its cartoon president from the very serious people sitting across from her. Randall, Kate, and the stoic Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan, anchoring the movie with enough poise and dignity to convince you that we might be worth saving after all) represent the audience’s collective disbelief, and leave the White House mired in a Kafkaesque mission to convince the world that the sky is falling.

Alas, their media strategy is… flawed. Worse, it epitomizes how “Don’t Look Up” can be damningly accurate and deeply asinine in the same breath. In real life, as we know all too well, Randall and co. would leak their top-secret intel straight to America’s most prominent news outlets, and it would appear on the front page of every major paper on the planet (thus prompting right-wing power mongers to fatally politicize a non-partisan death threat). In this movie — which, again, McKay strives to make basically indistinguishable from real life! — Randall and Kate are forced to spill the beans during the third segment of a frothy morning talk show that’s mostly devoted to the high-profile breakup between pop star Riley Bina (Ariana Grande) and her musician boyfriend DJ Cello (Scott Mescudi).

Randall tries to seize his Howard Beale moment and tell the masses that the end is nigh, but air-brushed hosts Brie Evantee and Jack Bremmer (Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry!?!!) are hellbent on keeping things light. The tone only changes a few weeks later, when tech zillionaire Peter Isherwell realizes that there’s money to be made from the apocalypse (he’s played by a whisper-quiet Mark Rylance, whose soft arrogance strikes a nerve even though his spectrum-y mishmash of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk can be trite and insultingly broad).

As the comet screams into view and its eventual impact grows harder to deny, “Don’t Look Up” swerves tantalizingly close to making some good points about the ironic tunnel vision of the information age — about the struggle to reconcile the clear and present existential dangers of our time with the weaponized solipsism people naturally fall back on in order to stop themselves from spinning out. McKay casts a wide, wide, wide, wide net in his attempt to channel the exasperating memory of movies like “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” but his overeager riff on Chicken Little finds itself on far more solid ground whenever it narrows its focus to a more personal level.

If President Orlean delivering a premature “Mission Accomplished” speech on the deck of an aircraft carrier verges on anti-comedy, it’s bitterly amusing to watch a frustrated Randall shrink towards nihilism and busy himself with trollish flame wars on the internet; Melanie Lynskey is low-key brilliant as his clear-headed wife, her grounded performance paving the way for a surprisingly poignant climactic scene. Timothée Chalamet doesn’t show up until what literally feels like the 11th hour, but his purple state crust-punk injects some unexpected poetry into this story right when everyone around him is starting to lose faith. In a movie that beats its One Big Joke to the brink of death with all the comic brio that Mel Gibson once brought to “The Passion of the Christ,” there’s a kernel of humanity at the heart of this mess that not even 1,000 riffs on the same joke (“The End Is Here — Will There Be a Super Bowl”) can fully diminish.

McKay’s hypnotically depressing movie is sustained less by its gallows humor than by its intractable sadness; less by laughing at the end of the world than by lamenting how one natural emergency isn’t motivation enough for us to collectively overcome another. The human brain hasn’t evolved to comprehend the more abstract threats that confront us all today. We’ve been hardwired to think about food and shelter and sex — to grapple with the concept of death, but not to the point that it paralyzes us from living. Our survival instinct is leading us straight to the slaughterhouse, and “Don’t Look Up” feels like Hollywood rubber-necking at the carnage from their vantage point among the hilltops.

And so we’re left with a very sweaty film that strains to be funny, but one that’s also itching to argue that it’s lack of funniness is precisely the point. Some problems can’t be solved by celebrities alone, and the most subversive thing about “Don’t Look Up” is ultimately how — in its own impotent way — it weaponizes its wild star power to make that point. It isn’t smart enough to be a wakeup call or shocking enough to scare people straight, but in the early days of a century in which the world has become a farce of itself and comedians are the only people still afforded $75 million to make serious-minded original cinema, maybe all we can do with the time that remains is stare at our screens and lament how we got here.

Netflix will release “Don’t Look Up” in select theaters on Friday, December 10. It will be available to stream on Netflix starting Friday, December 24.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Don’t Look Up’ on Netflix, in Which Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence Fight the Good Fight Against Nihilism

Where to stream:.

• Don't Look Up (2021)
• Leonardo DiCaprio

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Tiffany haddish says she told leonardo dicaprio "i want to f**k" under one condition, michael j. fox muses about returning to acting after announcing retirement in 2020, kate winslet reveals how her life took a turn for the "unpleasant" after 'titanic'.

Netflix’s star-spangled Don’t Look Up is the new comedy from Adam McKay, the filmmaker who famously shifted from goofball Will Ferrell comedies that are easy to love ( Anchorman , Step Brothers ) to withering, self-referential political satires ( The Big Short , Vice ) that are considerably more divisive. For the new film, McKay ropes in Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence to play scientists trying to tell the world about a “planet-killing” comet that’s comin’ right for us, and Meryl Streep as the POTUS who’s more concerned about the polls than armageddon. Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Ariana Grande, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry and Timothy Chalamet also turn up for this theoretically hilarious final hallelujah for Planet Earth – now let’s see if the movie’s a distracting celeb parade, or more than the sum of its many very famous parts.

DON’T LOOK UP : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence) is about to have an apocalyptic comet named after her: Does it get any better than that? She’s a PhD candidate at Michigan State University who spots the 9km-wide astral body in the Oort cloud, and her associate, Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio), is the astronomer who calculated its trajectory, a 99-point-something-something percent probability of it slamming into the Pacific off the coast of Chile and quickly extinguishing all life on Earth. Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) is a fed scientist who gets them an audience with President Janie Orlean (Streep) and her failson/chief of staff Jason (Hill). Prior to the meeting, Kate and Randall are so nervous, she pukes in a White House trash can and he pops a Xanax as they’re stared down by a painted portrait of Nancy Reagan. At this point, we get to watch the opening credits, which run deep with big Hollywood names. You’ve gotta take note of the “with” credits that come at the tail-end of such credits; when the “with”s are Streep and Blanchett, you know you’re watching a MOVIE.

When Kate, Randall and Teddy finally get face time with Madam President, we take note of the pictures in the Oval Office: Big portrait of Nixon, snapshots of her with Steven Seagal and Bill Clinton. Randall tells her that a “planet killer” comet with the strength of “a billion Hiroshima bombs” will destroy Earth in six months, and she says they just have to “sit tight and assess” the situation. Why should she listen to two schmoes from Michigan State University? She has Ivy Leaguers to consult, and midterm elections to worry about. Miffed, our intrepid and earnest protags decide to go to the press, knowing for absolute certain that their intrepid and earnest pleas will take precedence over the sensational breaking story about the Supreme Court justice nominee that was not only a nude figure model in college, but also Orlean’s secret lover. Meanwhile, we meet Peter Isherwell (Rylance), a buh-buh-buh-billionaire cell phone magnate with just the most radiant fake teeth you’ve ever seen. He’ll play a role in all this, because he’s the third-richest person in the world. Elsewhere, life goes on. A gecko molts. A hummingbird sups on nectar. A New York City sanitation dept. worker tosses rubbish.

Randall and Kate get booked for a news-chat show whose two hosts (Blanchett and Perry) can’t take anything seriously, especially the end times. Randall becomes the “sexy astronomer” on magazine covers, while Kate’s tearful and angry plea gets her meme’d within a millimeter of her sanity. He gets swept up in the hoopla, and she gets stepped on, but they still stump heavily for science and reason and rationality to whoever will listen, which is basically nobody. The POTUS eventually comes around; a plan to deflect the comet with nukes is derailed; the cell phone guy exerts his influence; Kate starts kissing a boy (Chalamet) who’s very sweet and sensitive even though he looks like he hops trains. Somewhere, bull elephant seals, clueless to their impending doom, fight over a female. Humpback whales hump. A mother hippo honks at its cub. Cub? Calf? Calf. It’s calf.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Don’t Look Up is the scene in Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds where Werner Herzog says that scene in Deep Impact is beautiful crossed with Vice crossed with Idiocracy . It wishes it was the 21st century Dr. Strangelove , but it’s not.

Performance Worth Watching: This is a tough one. There are so many stars in this movie! So I’m gonna go with the baby hippo.

Memorable Dialogue: Kate’s hot take on the White House: “We gotta get outta here. This place is a freak show.”

Sex and Skin: Some brief frontal and back-al nudity; a very quick snippet of a couple having end-times nookie.

Our Take: So many people living on Don’t Look Up ’s version of Earth are so infuriating, it’s not hard to be Team Comet. We’ll feel bad for the few good, flawed-but-worthy people who tried to do the right thing – Kate, Randall, Teddy, Randall’s sweet and patient wife (Melanie Lynskey) – but in the long run, the planet’s destruction is better for the universe. About a third of the way into the movie, its cynical fatalism kicks in, and we either saddle up for its ya-hoo nuclear-missile ride into annihilation, or grow weary of its conspicuous overtures, which add up to one big, loud, conspicuous metaphor for climate change that’s being howled a quarter-inch from our faces. Subtle, it is not.

But is it funny? Yeah, it’s funny. McKay’s screenplays are always good for several big laughs, and the gaudy procession of Hollywood VIPs can be entertaining. Yet it’s diminishing returns for McKay’s The World is F—ed trilogy – The Big Short ’s crisp, devilish slashing apart of Wall Street led to the easy-target skewering of “Darth” Dick Cheney in Vice , and now Don’t Look Up takes aim at the whole shebang, the State of Politics in America Today, and it’s more bloat than substance. McKay takes aim at Trump rallies, social media and reality-TV frippery, the slow creep of ethical compromise in news media, political nepotism, isolated billionaires, the growing global influence of Big Tech, science denialism, and there’s probably more, but making this list is wearing me out.

McKay insists that all of the above works in intricate lockstep and is leading us to obliteration, and, hey, tell us something we don’t know, man. You’ll trawl the film for a little hope, and find it in the kindness of others dwelling in the valley of the shadow of deathmongers, i.e., self-involved knowitall politicians and greedy CEOs. It certainly says something that Don’t Look Up inspires big-topic discussion in spite of its unholy DiCaprio-Lawrence-Streep-Blanchett-Chalamet conglomeration. McKay broadswords rah-rah swelling-pride patriotic astronaut movies, guts idealistic average-person-runs-for-President political fantasies and eviscerates cataclysmic disaster films as a means to stump hard and heavy for common sense. He insists that if we’re going to go down, it’s best to go down laughing. And in the glib tone wholly inspired by this movie, I can only say, sure, why not?

Our Call: There’s plenty of amusement to be gleaned from Don’t Look Up , in its mostly too-easy jokes and irresistible cast. But let it be known that it doesn’t justify its 138-minute run time, its commentary is obvious and it never quite fulfills the potential of its plethora of talent. So lower your expectations before you STREAM IT.

Will you stream or skip @GhostPanther 's #DontLookUp on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) December 24, 2021

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com .

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Don't Look Up review: The sky is falling in Adam McKay's starry, silly disaster flick

The world ends not with a bang, but a DiCaprio.

Adam McKay has made a rich career out of satire — an equal-opportunity parodist of blundering NASCAR drivers ( Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby ), walrus-mustachioed TV bohunks ( Anchorman ), and rogue vice presidents ( Vice ). In 2015's The Big Short , he gave us Margot Robbie explaining subprime mortgages in a bubble bath and Ryan Gosling breaking down big-bank malfeasance with a stack of Jenga blocks.

So he seems like exactly the guy, in other words, to take on the broad insanity of… whatever you would call the last five years of American life. And that is what the writer-director does — indeed pretty broadly — in Don't Look Up , a winking indictment of climate-change deniers and alternative-fact peddlers told on a global scale. The result feels a little like Mars Attacks! , if the call were coming from inside the house: a disaster movie all dressed up for the apocalypse with too many movie stars to count and not quite enough punchlines.

Which isn't to say it's no fun: The film (in theaters this Friday and on Netflix Dec. 24), gets enough mileage out of Cate Blanchett' s bioluminescent teeth alone to nearly justify the ride. But McKay seems hamstrung perhaps by the sheer absurdity of what he's supposed to be lampooning; how do you parodize a parody? You start by putting two of the world's most famous actors in normal-people drag: Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence are, respectively, Dr. Randall Mindy and Ph.D. candidate Kate Dibiasky, both astrophysicists at Michigan State. He's a nice, anxious dad with an overgrown goatee and a comfy sweater bod; she's got two nose rings and looks like an angry bird cut her bangs with kitchen shears.

What's not in doubt is the pair's scientific bona fides, and Kate has found a comet that has a 100 percent chance of impacting Earth in just over six months and destroying it entirely. That discovery quickly earns them an audience with President Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep), a power-suited #LadyBoss with a blond cascade of Real Housewife barrel curls and a picture of herself with Steven Seagal in a place of pride on her Oval Office desk. Her reaction to the news, eagerly supported by her frat-boy son and chief of staff ( Jonah Hill ), is to "sit tight and assess." It's weeks before the midterms, see, and if everybody on the planet learns they're about to die in a ball of fire, they'll lose the election — which is just, you know, atrocious timing for everyone.

There's also a billionaire mogul named Peter Isherwell, played by Oscar winner Mark Rylance as a sort of eerie bionic wraith (no one ever explicitly says which tech CEO inspired him, though there's a good chance it rhymes with Shmark Shmuckerberg). Peter has his own plans for the comet, and his own "scientists" too. Randall and Kate going on a popular info-tainment show hosted by Blanchett's gleaming, ruthless Brie Evantee and her jocular coanchor Jack Brenner (Tyler Perry) doesn't really help their case; Kate's desperate Howard Beale speech when she realizes that both hosts, like the POTUS, care more about their own Q ratings than the end of the world make her nothing but an instant laughing-stock meme.

McKay lands a few clean arrows in all this, not least with Rylance's spooky plasticity (the banality of evil, indeed). And his casting cup overruns almost casually with A-list guests, from a distinctly silly Ariana Grande cameo to a charming and markedly more substantial turn by Timothée Chalamet as a delinquent skateboarder with a thing for Kate's choppy bangs. (Melanie Lynskey is great too as Dr. Randall's too-wise wife, semi-abandoned in the wake of his astronomical new fame.) Frankly, it's almost enough just to watch them all run around in states that range from manic panic to Zen serenity while McKay employs his usual coterie of meta tricks and treats. But it's hard not to long for the shrewder movie that might have been: Not just a kooky scattershot look, but a deeper truer gaze into the void. Grade: B

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There's some mild peril from thunderstorms hitting the house, and a sad sequence

Two adults drink out of champagne flutes.

Any Positive Content?

Carl and Russell become good friends and teach each other about responsibility,

Strong role models for multi-generational friendship and a successful marriage.

Meant to entertain, but might inspire an interest in travel and adventure.

Products & Purchases

This movie is part of the Disney-Pixar dynasty, with merchandise and other marketing tie-ins associated with the film.

Violence & Scariness

There's some mild peril from thunderstorms hitting the house, and a sad sequence that shows Ellie sick in the hospital and then Carl in a funeral home, surrounded by flowers. Both a real gun and a tranquilizer gun are fired at various characters. A house gets set on fire. Younger kids might be scared by some 3-D images that jump at them from the screen, as well as Muntz' dogs, which sometimes appear seemingly out of nowhere, growling and angry. Muntz tries to get rid of Carl and Russell, even if it means trying to kill them. One character falls to his death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Carl and Russell become good friends and teach each other about responsibility, caring for nature, and the movie's main theme about "the spirit of adventure." Loyalty, grit, teamwork, and creative thinking are also themes.

Positive Role Models

Strong role models for multi-generational friendship and a successful marriage. Young Ellie befriends an otherwise lonely young Carl; they become best friends and later a married couple. He takes care of her after she grows ill, and he embarks on a journey to fulfill a lifelong dream of theirs. Russell is a spunky, determined kid. Characters demonstrate integrity, empathy, and gratitude.

Educational Value

Parents need to know that Up is the second Pixar movie (after The Incredibles ) to receive a PG rating, mostly due to a few potentially frightening scenes involving a band of trained talking dogs trying to get rid of the protagonists, some moments where characters almost fall from a floating house, and some guns firing. That said, it's Disney/Pixar, so the violence is mild. Viewers should note that an early wordless sequence follows an emotional and potentially upsetting trajectory that could trigger questions about old age, illness, and death. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (251)
• Kids say (265)

Based on 251 parent reviews

Very sad and emotionally intense

Might be intense for younger children, what's the story.

In UP, septuagenarian Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner ) and his wife Ellie had a shared dream since childhood: to visit exotic Paradise Falls in South America, a place the once-famous explorer Charles Muntz ( Christopher Plummer ) claimed was the most beautiful in the world. After Ellie dies, Carl decides to make his beloved late wife's dream come true and unveils hundreds of helium balloons to fly his house to Paradise Falls. Unbeknownst to Carl, a young Wildlife Explorer scout named Russell (Justin Nagai) is along for the ride. When they finally arrive, the odd couple discovers that Muntz is more interested in killing an elusive rare bird than living in paradise.

Is It Any Good?

Pixar has brought to life a multi-generational odd couple in a film that's visually stunning, surprisingly touching, and unsurprisingly delightful. After nine films, Pixar's legend is well known; it's the only studio with a perfect record both commercially (each of its releases has grossed more than $150 million) and critically. Up is no exception on the latter front, and considering the demand for family entertainment, it's sure to be a big hit money-wise, too.

The beginning of the film is an unexpected tearjerker following the entire marriage -- from first sight to widowhood -- of adventurous-at-heart Carl and Ellie Fredricksen. But he bulk of the story, as the trailer promises, is Carl and Russell's amazing skyward journey to Paradise Falls. Above the gorgeous and colorful animated vistas, Pixar's astonishing achievement is the sweet, funny, lasting relationship that it's odd-couple heroes share.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Up 's central relationship between Carl and Russell. What does the movie have to say about multigenerational friendships? What does a young boy teach an elderly man, and vice versa?

Kids: What kind of adventures do you dream of having? Does an adventure need to be somewhere far away?

How do the characters in Up demonstrate empathy and teamwork ? What about integrity and gratitude ? Why are these important character strengths ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : May 29, 2009
• On DVD or streaming : November 10, 2009
• Cast : Christopher Plummer , Ed Asner , Jordan Nagai
• Director : Pete Docter
• Studio : Pixar Animation Studios
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Adventures , Friendship , Great Boy Role Models
• Character Strengths : Empathy , Gratitude , Integrity , Teamwork
• Run time : 98 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : some peril and action
• Award : Kids' Choice Award
• Last updated : May 15, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

The Incredibles

Toy Story 3

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• Great Boy Role Models

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Set in the upper echelons of New York business, but focusing on a couple of overworked, stressed-out assistants, “Set it Up” is a rare romantic comedy that has its own distinctive look, rhythm, and storytelling voice. It builds its sensibility on deep knowledge of the romantic comedy, from “ The Apartment ” and “It Happened One Night” to “ The Parent Trap ” and “ Cyrano de Bergerac ” (mentioned by the two main characters, who trick their bosses into falling in love so they can have a moment’s peace). It’s satisfying, for the most part—a solid romantic comedy with sharp dialogue, amusing characters, a soundtrack of well-worn feel-good hits, and a few surprises up its sleeve. Its only major flaw is an inability to imagine the bosses as richly as the leads. But we’ll get to that. 

Harper ( Zoey Deutch ) is an assistant to Kirsten ( Lucy Liu ), a famous and fearsome ESPN reporter. Harper wants to be a writer but can’t muster the nerve to follow through on her one good idea; on top of that, her days are so long than whenever she does try to write, she’s so tired that “everything I write is, like, bad .” Charlie (Glen Powell) is an assistant to Rick ( Taye Diggs ), a Tom Wolfe Master-of-the-Universe type whose job never quite comes into focus but definitely involves huge sums of money.

The bosses’ employers are located in the same building, which allows Charlie and Harper to meet cute in the lobby one late night. Harper orders food for her boss without realizing the restaurant is cash-only. Charlie, who just missed the cutoff to order his boss’ favorite steak, spots an opportunity to redeem himself, pays for the order, and claims the whole thing; this leads to a charming negotiation that splits up the food, and ultimately to a shared realization that if they can trick their Type A bosses into falling in love, they might get their lives back. “It’s hard to bark orders at someone when your tongue is down someone’s throat,” Harper says. 

Harper just signed up for Tinder and is going out on lots of dates, and Charlie is devoted to a gorgeous but materialistic girlfriend ( Joan Smalls ) who doesn’t appreciate him. But the two spend so much time together plotting their bosses’ romance that they become close friends, and there are moments where they click so well that you can sense them laboring to deny the obvious. Director  Claire Scanlon and screenwriter Katie Silberman are able to imagine these two as both credible human beings and classic romantic comedy types (Charlie is young Jack Lemmon poured into a tall preppy frame, while Deutch can remind you of either Ellen Page or Diane Keaton , depending on the scene and how fast she’s talking). 

The leads bring such strong comic chops and have such chemistry that there’s a chance we might have been smitten even if Silberman hadn’t provided them with wannabe-iconic scenes to play, including one that originates in the conviction that pizza is the most romantic food. Their shared sense of humor is built on deadpan delivery and insulting remarks that are really secret statements of camaraderie. Charlie and Harper fall into a mutually satisfying relationship so fast that you start to imagine the old married couple they could become, if only the stars would align. 

The ensuing plot complications enrich the movie, even as they suggest fresher roads that the film rarely musters the nerve to explore. One of these is the physically and emotionally draining aspects of capitalism. “Set it Up” is as much a film about work as it is a romantic comedy. People on the lower rungs of the film’s economic ladder often seem exasperated by their mistreatment by customers and clients, while people on the higher rungs are obsessed with money and status and are often unknowingly condescending towards people below them (notice how how Charlie’s conversations keep circling back to getting promoted, and how Harper keeps finding herself without money to pay low-wage workers who probably earn only slightly less than she does). The script seems forever on the verge of combining all these details into a grand statement, probably a satirical one. But it never happens, and you’re left wondering if the movie softened its own edges so as not to scare anyone off. 

The film’s vision of a diverse city is more tantalizing and frustrating. It’s a treat to see Liu and Diggs cast in the kinds of abrasive, magnetic parts that have traditionally gone to white character actors (think of Fred MacMurray in “The Apartment” or Meryl Streep in “ The Devil Wears Prada “). Both carry themselves with crowd-pleasing swagger. They’re aided by Silberman’s recurring gags, such as Kirsten barking “Tell me something I don’t know!” at her writers, and Rick coveting outward signifiers of wealth (he throws out any liquor that costs less than $200) and making sudden, demanding requests of Charlie. Liu and Diggs look like they’re having a blast, and the payoff of Kirsten and Rick’s relationship is the most unexpected note in the movie. 

But aside from a scene of Rick reverting to a less polished persona while drunkenly bonding with Charlie, and a humanizing moment where we realize that Kirsten recognizes great potential in Harper and genuinely thinks of her as her pupil, the characters never give the actors as much as the actors give the characters. And we never gain a sense of what it means for these two to be in charge of—and yet isolated within —a predominantly white workplace. They armor themselves with flamboyant aggression, and convince their employees (and themselves) that they prefer brooding isolation to human contact. This is the sort of behavior a 1990s movie yuppie character might exhibit. But it plays differently on characters who are African-American and Chinese-American, and therefore had to fight their way into a corporate workplace that welcomed most white people of a certain social class. (We probably shouldn’t even get into the alternate universe version of “Set it Up” where Kirsten and Rick are the leads and Harper and Charlie are supporting.)

Rick + Kirsten wouldn’t feel like such a missed opportunity if “Set it Up” weren’t so evidently comfortable writing supporting characters of different races and ethnicities; giving every actor with a speaking role something memorable to do, even if they’re onscreen for less than a minute; and filling each role with a performer who sticks in your mind. ( Meredith Tucker , who has cast many vivid ensembles , does wizardly work here.) You expect “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” costar  Tituss Burgess to excel playing a creepily over-invested building employee who gets drawn into Charlie and Harper’s scheme; but lesser known players register just as strongly, in particular  Jeff Hiller as a mistreated waiter, Evan Park as a doorman with a spiritually exhausted glare, and Sonia Denis as a ring salesperson who sees a relationship-changing argument unfold in front of her. 

They all reminded me of one the biggest small parts in any film, Nada Despotovich as the bakery employee in “ Moonstruck ” who witnesses’ Nicolas Cage’s meltdown and blurts out , “That is the most tormented man that I have ever known. I’m in love with that man. But he doesn’t know that. I never told him, because he can never love anybody since he lost his hand and his girl.” 

There’s so much life in this movie that I wanted it have even more. But it’s still bursting with talent. 

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• Taye Diggs as Rick
• Pete Davidson as Duncan
• Glen Powell as Charlie
• Lucy Liu as Kirsten
• Zoey Deutch as
• Claire Scanlon
• Katie Silberman
• Laura Karpman

Cinematographer

• Matthew Clark
• Wendy Greene Bricmont

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Netflix's Peaky Blinders movie cast is only getting more star-studded, with Barry Keoghan joining the line-up

The Peaky Blinders movie cast is growing

Netflix's Peaky Blinders movie has added another star to its line-up: Barry Keoghan. 

The streamer confirmed the news on Twitter , after Deadline reported the casting. There are no character details for who Keoghan is playing just yet, though. 

Keoghan joins Cillian Murphy and Rebecca Ferguson in the movie. Murphy, of course, is returning as his iconic character Tommy Shelby, while Ferguson's character is shrouded in mystery so far. Series creator Steven Knight penned the script for the film, and Heart of Stone helmer Tom Harper is directing. 

Keoghan is probably best known for his starring role in Saltburn opposite Jacob Elordi, as well as playing the Joker in The Batman opposite Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader. He's also recently appeared in Apple TV Plus's Masters of the Air (and he had a starring role in Sabrina Carpenter's 'Please Please Please' music video). 

These are the only confirmed cast members so far, but Tom Hardy, who played Alfie in the original series, is up for a return . "100% Alfie will definitely make an appearance, but I don't know when… and I don't even know if he will, that was just me punting," Hardy teased. 

"It seems like Tommy Shelby wasn’t finished with me… It is very gratifying to be recollaborating with Steven Knight and Tom Harper on the film version of Peaky Blinders," Murphy has said of his return . "This is one for the fans." 

There's no release date for the Peaky Blinders movie just yet, but, while you wait,  check out our guide to all the best Netflix shows and best Netflix movies to watch right now.

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I'm an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English. 

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‘The Deliverance’ Review: The Power of Camp Compels Him

Lee Daniels directs Andra Day and Glenn Close in an exorcism tale that includes melodrama along with the scares.

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By Amy Nicholson

The director Lee Daniels frees his actors to exorcise their demons with audacious performances that rank among the most memorable of their careers. (If you’ve yet to see the mischief Nicole Kidman gets up to in “The Paperboy,” you’re in for a hoot.) With “The Deliverance,” a riotously wacky horror flick, Daniels adds actual demons, too, sending his latest troubled heroine, Andra Day, straight over the edge. Day, a Grammy-winning musician, earned a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination for her performance in Daniels’s “ The United States vs. Billie Holiday .” Not only can she sing and act — here, she’s an outrageous scream queen.

Day plays Ebony, a single mother plagued by bills, alcohol addiction and her own violent temper. Her three glum children — Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins), Nate (Caleb McLaughlin) and Shante (Demi Singleton) — have endured years of abuse even before something wicked in their new home urges the tykes to hurt themselves and each other. Adding to the pressure, Ebony’s born-again, floozy mother, Alberta (Glenn Close), has moved in to recover from cancer (and criticize her daughter’s cooking), while a social worker named Cynthia (Mo’Nique) drops by to monitor the kids’ bruises, and, when pushed out the door, hurls as many nasty quips as she gets. When the spooky business starts, Ebony barely notices. She simply slams the basement door and keeps on trucking.

The script by David Coggeshall and Elijah Bynum is a riff on the 2011 case of Latoya Ammons, whose claims that evil spirits had overtaken her family were corroborated by a Department of Child Services case manager, a medic, a police captain and a priest. But “The Deliverance” is driven by Ebony’s struggle to convince anyone to believe her — the pitiless authorities refuse to look past her own flaws. To the audience, however, she deepens into a riveting character study, particularly in one close-up where Ebony agonizes over whether maintaining her truth is worth the terrible personal consequences.

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7 best new Netflix movies that are 90% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes

Netflix Originals sit pretty with high marks from critics

You can't rely on the Netflix movies Top 10 list for quality films. In fact, it often seems like the inverse is more likely. This is why we curate a list of the best movies on Netflix . 

But that's a list of movies that's curated by our in-house experts, and we know there's a whole world of critics out there, whose opinions also matter. That's why we often look to Rotten Tomatoes , the review-aggregator. 

And it's also why we keep tabs on what's new on Netflix . In recent months, we've tracked the best Netflix movies with high Rotten Tomatoes scores (back in August), and another set of Netflix movies with high RT scores (in October). 

Yes, while Netflix is doing its best to keep its rep as one of the best streaming services , it competes with the likes of HBO Max and Hulu by making sure it always adds great new movies.  So, here we are, back again to give Netflix its flowers for bringing in more well-reviewed movies that have been added since the last edition of this column. Even better, though, the majority are Netflix Originals.

So, let's dive into what we love about seven of the best recently added movies on Netflix — but note that ratings are admittedly subject to change. Netflix's Lady Chatterley's Lover was originally going to be on this list, but it fell from 91% to 86%. If you want even fresher recommendations, check out the 7 best new movies to watch this week , which finds George Clooney and Julia Roberts reunited. Also, we'll admit that Rotten Tomatoes isn't the end all be all — we loved Bullet Train and recommend it, but it only scored a 53%. Want a wider range of movies? Check out our list of the best movies of 2022 that you can stream online.

"Sr." (2022)

This time of the year is perfect for content about families, and "Sr." one-ups that by focusing on a super-famous son (Robert Downey Jr.) and his iconic father (Robert Downey). Yes, if you weren't aware: the man who plays Tony Stark had some lived experience as the son of an iconic success story. And this movie, a passion project of his, is all about making sure everyone (including members of his own family) know about the legacy and history of Robert Downey Sr., a filmmaker and actor of high prestige.

Lauded as being enjoyable for the interactions between father and son, and offering good lessons about life in the Hollywood machine. "Sr." is the kind of critical success that should happen more on Netflix: an original project that isn't bombastic or sensational — sure it's built around a beloved celebrity — but it's also heartfelt. 

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Genre: Documentary Rotten Tomatoes score: 96% Stream it on Netflix

Enola Holmes 2 (2022)

You've probably seen advertising for Netflix's second Enola Holmes movie. Its existence is nothing close to a secret. What you might not know is that it's been a hit with reviewers. Millie Bobby Brown is given a lot of credit for making this sequel work, though others say it benefits from increased time from Henry Cavill as the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes.

Yes, if you've yet to crack the concept behind the title of the Netflix Enola Holmes films, these movies are about Sherlock Holmes' sister Enola (MBB) — and were based on the The Enola Holmes Mysteries books from Nancy Springer. Now out on her own — starting her own detective agency — in this sequel, the younger Holmes is having trouble getting taken seriously. Potential customers say she's too inexperienced, but she finds a client — an even younger girl, whose sister is a missing factory worker. This is how Enola Holmes 2 works in actual history, as the Matchgirls Strike of 1888 is a part of its story.

Genre: Mystery Rotten Tomatoes score: 94% Watch it on Netflix

Is that Black Enough for You?!? (2022)

One of the three films on this list with 100% ratings, Is that Black Enough for You?!? proves that Netflix's documentaries are resonating with critics. A must-see for anyone who doesn't have a firm grasp on the history of Black cinema, this film shines its spotlight on the period of cinema between 1968 and 1978. Film critic Elvis Mitchell narrates, and he got credit from his fellow reviewers for the moments wherein his critical voice merges with his personal memories.

And if you're not a fan of Mr. Mitchell, a truly great voice in film criticism, Is That Black Enough for You?!? brought in a ton of famous Black actors and directors — Samuel L. Jackson, Charles Burnett, Whoopi Goldberg, Laurence Fishburne and even Zendaya for the young ones — to share their memories and stories.

Genre: Documentary Rotten Tomatoes score: 100% Watch it on Netflix

Moneyball (2011)

Fortunately, some of the beloved additions to Netflix come from outside its walls. Moneyball, which arrived during the interim window since I last wrote this column, is a fantastic 2011 movie about underdogs in sports. And unlike most movies that have that description, it's about the people who aren't running the bases. That may sound drab to some, but follow me: Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill star as folks inside the Oakland Athletics' who have to find a way to compete with the well-funded New York Yankees.

And — thanks to the combined charisma of Pitt and Hill, plus an all-star lineup featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt and Robin Wright — it all somehow works.

Genre: Drama Rotten Tomatoes score: 94 % Stream it on Netflix

Stutz (2022)

Want more Jonah Hill? We've got you covered with a movie he directed and stars in. In Stutz, which has one of the other 100% RT scores on this list, the actor talks with his therapist, Phil Stutz. No, this isn't just recorded therapy sessions: Stutz gives audiences insight about the titular therapist's work.

Hill tells us his life got "immeasurably better" after working with Mr. Stutz, and thinks that sharing his ideas with the world could help people. Critics praised Stutz for being more than just a TED talk or promotion about one man's way of doing things. Instead, you get a conversation between two emotionally invested individuals about a topic we should all prioritize.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 100% Genre: Documentary Stream it on Netflix

Up in the Air (2009)

Possibly too-on-the-nose as we see an increasing number of headlines about layoffs, Up in the Air is still a solid pick because it gives audiences something we seemingly will never tire of: George Clooney being charismatic. And he's showing how he can make the same kind of character (an expert who needs to learn a lesson) fresh every time. 

In Up in the Air, Ryan Bingham (Clooney) travels around the country laying people off for a living. But Ryan starts to rethink his life choices when he meets Alex (Vera Farmiga), as the two develop a romance. Co-writer and director Jason Reitman won points for Up in the Air's plot twists and dialogue.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 90% Genre: Romantic comedy Stream it on Netflix

Descendant (2022)

The community of Africatown — which is near Mobile, Alabama — is made up of the descendants of last known ship to smuggle stolen Africans to America. Netflix's Descendant, which also has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, tells the story of the generations that lived here through their descendants.

The ship's existence was covered up, as the vessel was burned down in an attempt to erase it from history. This film, looks to fix that gap in history, and explain the relevance of Africatown, which is is surrounded by industrial factories and towns.

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Henry is a managing editor at Tom’s Guide covering streaming media, laptops and all things Apple, reviewing devices and services for the past seven years. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. He's also covered the wild world of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other industry veterans.

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• rstar13 Thank you for the good review of Stutz. I really enjoyed it and will tell others about it. I am lucky to have found such a good source for streaming tv recommendations. Reply
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Netflix’s best new movie arrives with a perfect 100% critic score.

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This article was published on 8/17 and republished on 8/19 and 8/20.

This is going to be one that slides under the radar, despite a perfect 100% score from critics, but Netflix has a new best movie at the moment, one that is not appearing on the top 10, likely given its subject matter and a lack of awareness about it.

That movie is Daughters, a documentary focused on the Date with Dad program, where daughters come to prison to see their fathers and it’s more than just a visitation, it’s a little party in an era when many prisons have stopped in-person visit altogether in favor of video or phone calls, at best.

Daughters was released on August 14, and has racked up 43 reviews, a lot more than some Netflix original movies get, and has maintained a Certified Fresh, perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.

This being not well-watched may have something to do with Netflix’s recommendation algorithm. It took about five scrolls on Netflix’s “New” section to find it, and of course Netflix doesn’t show critic scores, so there’s nothing to indicate how good it is. And I suppose most people’s recommendation algorithm does not circle to “documentaries about daughters visiting their fathers in prison.”

It’s not a purely feel-good story. The daughters often have complicated reactions to their fathers and the film does not shy away from that. While it’s a documentary, not a fun blockbuster to watch on the weekend, it very much seems worth watching. Right now, the full top 10 movie list, where Daughters has not been found after three days is:

• The Emoji Movie
• Night School
• Trolls: Band Together
• Saving Bikini Bottom
• Inside the Mind of a Dog
• Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie

So yes, a lot more mainstream competition there, but maybe shining a light on Daughters like this may make it more watched. If it really is this good, we might expect even an Oscar nomination in the documentary category later this year, but we’ll see, it’s a bit early yet to know that. And yet with several dozen reviews in, we rarely see perfect scores like this.

When I get time this weekend or next week, I will definitely be giving it a watch based on the praise it’s getting, and even though Netflix does not appear to want to market it to me directly. Which is too bad, as it seems like it deserves better.

Update (8/19): Well, I thought I would swing by Netflix’s top 10 list and see if this movie has had its profile elevated at all. There is a new movie near the bottom of the list. It is not Daughters. It is Minion. Alas.

I have been reading up more on the film ahead of watchiing it, and there are some neat interviews with the co-directors Natalie Rae and Angela Patton. Here’s Rae after a showing at the August Academy in Beverly Hills:

“That screening was just so powerful,” said Rae. “It was five standing ovations and so much laughter and joy and energy. You’ve been working on the edit for three years off and on. So finally, being able to share it and feel the level of emotion, I was not prepared for it.”

Netflix bought the movie after it won the US Documentary Audience and Festival Favorite Awards at Sundance. And now they want it to be an Oscar contender when the time rolls around, which it certainly seems on track for. Here’s Rae again.

“This is a young girls’ story about the wisdom that these young girls had to know what they needed to say. ‘I want to have a dance with my father in this jail.’ It’s so profound. This was about their internal world, their experience, the power that they have to make change in the world.”

Daughters is streaming now.

Update 2 (8/20): I was curious so I went and tracked down a list of what the highest scored Netflix original movies of all time were, to see if anything else compared to the 100% we’re seeing from Daughters here which yes, a week later it still maintains with 50 reviews in (though no, it has not placed on the Top 10 list which is now almost entirely kids movies).

Turns out there is only one 100% Netflix original film according to a list that I think is 1.5 years out of date, but it’s still probably good enough. Here are the top scored Netflix original films so far:

• Calibre - 95%
• The Irishman - 95%
• Tramps - 96%
• To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before - 96%
• Dolemite is My Name - 97%
• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom - 97%
• The Forty Year-Old Version - 99%
• Daughters - 100%
• His House - 100%

Some really interesting stories on that list, but no doubt many films you haven’t heard of as they were smaller offerings. Others like The Irishman were hugely high profile, an expensive Martin Scorsese film that Netflix landed. Roma was a big Oscar film. But I was really surprised to see To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before on the list, an admittedly good teen romcom, but a 96%? No wonder it spawned an entire trilogy and spin-offs.

As for His House, yes, I have seen that one. It’s a horror film about a family haunted by their past, demons that live in the walls from their previous lives. It has a 100% with a stunning 127 reviews in, and you have no idea how hard it is to maintain a perfect score with that many reviews. Really impressive and obviously the 2020 film is worth a watch.

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'IC 814' Review: Perfectly-woven hostage drama with stellar cast, superb execution

Ic 814 review: 'ic 814: the kandahar hijack story', which marks anubhav sinha's series debut, is now streaming on netflix. based on a true event, does the vijay varma, naseeruddin shah, pankaj kapur-starrer live up to its expectations read the review and find out..

Listen to Story

• 'IC 814' is based on the hijack of Kathmandu-Delhi Indian Airlines flight
• It features an ensemble cast and is directed by Anubhav Sinha
• Read our review of the six-episode series here

Cast & Crew

Anubhav Sinha

Vijay Varma

Nasseruddin Shah

Pankaj Kapoor

Kumud Mishra

Release Date: 29 Aug, 2024

170 people board a plane to Delhi from Kathmandu. It's a regular flight, like the one we take. There are children, pregnant women, senior citizens - basically the aam janta we come across every day, fighting their own life problems, pre-occupied about their family or career or something.

However, what they did not know was that the fated journey of less than two hours would take them over a week, and one would not even be able to see the light of the day.

It turned out to be the longest hijack in the history of India . Bringing this real story to the screen as a series requires superb research and storytelling prowess to keep audiences hooked for nearly four hours. Thankfully, director Anubhav Sinha and his team, including an extremely talented ensemble cast, weave a perfectly intriguing hostage drama that will make you binge on it till the end in one go.

The biggest challenge, in my opinion, was thrown at director Anubhav Sinha, who also created the show along with Trishant Srivastava. He also leads the writing team along with Srivastava, journalist Adrian Levy, and Soumya Tiwari. The research team, of course, did have a monumental job of getting to the nitty-gritties of what might have happened around the hijack, as would the screenwriting team to build it into an intense 4-hour long script. However, to bring it all together and execute it into the final product must have been a daunting task, which Sinha did masterfully. He is a seasoned director, and that comes in handy in the series.

Sinha also adds real footage of the events in between the narrative, an element that not only lends authenticity but also helps the audience connect deeper with the story. Interspersed in between is the government and decision-making bodies brainstorming about what is to be done that will best suit the situation. The series does not pretend to not involve politics, which is impossible in a real-life hijack story, but it also does not take a stand like Sinha does in his films. After all, this is a true event and he presents it as it is, but also manages to pose questions with subtlety (well, almost).

The last episode is what gives dimension to the series. It just leaves the answer to the audience as to what is right or wrong, and if there is ever a decision that could have been perfect. The exchange between Manoj Pahwa and Arvind Swami's characters is what forms the crux. Did the decision-makers and government officials win, fight, or even give their best? It's all for the audience to decide.

Coupled with Anubhav Sinha's direction are crisp editing, sharp dialogues and music that sets the pace and keeps the tension palpable. And then, there is the commendable camerawork that captures action in a limited space - inside the aircraft.

Not to forget, there is an extremely talented ensemble cast - from Vijay Varma to Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Manoj Pahwa, Arvind Swami, Anupam Tripathi, Dia Mirza, Patralekhaa, Amrita Puri, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Kumud Mishra, just to name a few. While not everyone has extensive screen time, this perfectly synchronised cast delivers their best in every moment they have.

Each performance elevates the narrative and the overall execution. Vijay Varma, Manoj Pahwa, Arvind Swamy, Patralekhaa and Anupam Tripathi's performances stand out.

Varma plays the captain and does justice to his role as the man who is responsible for the flight's safety while being at gunpoint. He brings out the tension and the dilemma with finesse.

Manoj Pahwa lends elements of dark humour in the negotiation scene, something that seems to be a touch that could not have been as nuanced had it not been for him. Seeing Anupam Tripathi do justice to Agent Ram, who had done his best to prevent the hijack, was also satisfying as a viewer who enjoyed 'Squid Games' just as much.

The series also subtly comments on the grey areas of journalism. For journalists, distinguishing between what is right and wrong, and deciding what information to withhold or disclose, becomes extremely challenging in the quest to get to the root of a story and bring out the whole truth to the readers. When national security is at stake, determining when and how much of the truth should be revealed becomes crucial.

TERMINATOR: ZERO Anime Series Hits Netflix Amid Highly Positive First Reviews

If you weren't planning to check out Netflix's Terminator: Zero anime series, you may reconsider after having a read through these first reviews...

"Three billion human lives ended on August 29, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day..."

Despite decent reviews, the last Terminator movie, Dark Fate , was the latest instalment in the franchise to underperform at the box office, and it will probably be a very long time before we see the war against the machines continue on the big screen (though it's worth noting that James Cameron did recently reveal that he is planning to return to the franchise for a mysterious new project). 

While the saga may be taking a (possibly permanent) break in live-action, a new 8-episode Netflix anime series titled Terminator Zero is now streaming.

The project takes the classic sci-fi franchise in a completely new direction by moving the story to Tokyo, Japan, and, for the first time, shifting away from Sarah and John Connor, who have (together or separately) featured in all previous Terminator movies.

It's unusual for the streamer to debut new content on a Thursday, but August 29 is Judgment Day, after all!

The first reviews are now in, and while a few critics weren't completely won over by the anime, the majority were full of praise for what sounds like an intriguing new take on the story.

No Rotten Tomatoes score yet, but have a read through the initial round of reviews at the links below, and let us know if you plan on watching Terminator: Zero in the comments section.

I binged all 8 eps of #TerminatorZero to write this @GamesRadar review and I’m glad I did because this is the Terminator I fell in love with as a kid. I love how @mattsontomlin and the team pay homage to the classics while still forging a brand new path https://t.co/Vgo7JVoTid — David Opie (@DavidOpie) August 29, 2024

TERMINATOR ZERO is an action-packed, thrilling story that hits the gas from the word "GO" and never stops. It takes classic Terminator themes, explores them more profoundly, and packs a considerable punch! I adored the world-building and animation in this. Bravo, @mattsontomlin ! pic.twitter.com/pEvMXAezKN — 🎥 Adam Hlaváč 💿 (@adamhlavac) August 29, 2024

Terminator Zero showcases the best within the Terminator franchise and explores elements that have never truly been touched before. Mattson Tomlin delivers a whole new direction for the Terminator franchise to follow and delivers it with stylistic flair. This is the best… pic.twitter.com/bLR81TmLkF — Chris 🦦 #VENOMANIACS (@LuminousDagger) August 29, 2024

Terminator Zero is more interested in brains than brawn https://t.co/HHguwUORZw pic.twitter.com/1hN4ttM0eh — The A.V. Club (@TheAVClub) August 29, 2024

'Terminator Zero' Review - Stellar Animation Can't Save Netflix's Twist-Heavy Series https://t.co/aR96sZkZZM — Collider (@Collider) August 29, 2024

‘TERMINATOR ZERO’ is not only the best thing the franchise has seen in years, but also one of the most stylish Netflix animes yet. Find out more in our review... https://t.co/DKZLu52aP6 — DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) August 29, 2024

. @netflix edges its animation category with a new sci-fi thriller anime series. #Terminator Read @fromdusktiljuan ’s full non-spoiler review of @mattsontomlin 's #TerminatorZero Season 1! https://t.co/OqlOSnoesu pic.twitter.com/ElDaVWMRCD — The Cinema Spot (@TheCinemaSpot) August 29, 2024

'Terminator Zero' Review: Netflix's Anime Spinoff Gives a Classic Franchise a Promising New Look https://t.co/Z4jwB17GOa — The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 29, 2024

Showrunner and executive producer Mattson Tomlin ( The Batman - Part II ) recently explained the decision to switch focus to a whole new set of characters.

“I think that it’s time to go into new characters and not burden myself with another John and Sarah Connor saga. There's been a run at that a couple of different times," Tomlin says. "There are a lot of callbacks to the other films. Fans who really know the movies are going to be doing the Leo meme from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but it's not going to be as direct as John Connor walks in, because John Connor does not walk in."

Tomlin does make it clear that the show will not be a complete reboot, however.“ We're not going to pretend that the third movie didn't happen. We're not going to pretend that the sixth movie didn't happen.”

The official synopsis reads:

“2022: A future war has raged for decades between the few human survivors and an endless army of machines. 1997: The AI known as Skynet gained self-awareness and began its war against humanity. Caught between the future and this past is a soldier sent back in time to change the fate of humanity. She arrives in 1997 to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee who works to launch a new AI system designed to compete with Skynet’s impending attack on humanity. As Malcolm navigates the moral complexities of his creation, he is hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future which forever alters the fate of his three children.”

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IC-814 The Kandahar Hijack Review: Anubhav Sinha Series Soars High With Brilliant Performances

Written By : Nishad Thaivalappil

Edited By: Dishya Sharma

Last Updated: August 29, 2024, 14:20 IST

Mumbai, India

IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack U

• 29 August 2024 | Hindi
• 6 Episodes | Thriller, Real-life Story
• Starring: Vijay Varma, Dia Mirza, Patralekhaa, Kumud Mishra
• Director: Anubhav Sinha
• Platform: Netflix

IC-814 The Kandahar Hijack Series Review: Anubhav Sinha crafts a gripping narrative with the help of stellar performances.

IC-814 The Kandahar Hijack Review: IC-814 The Kandahar Hijack, directed by Anubhav Sinha, revisits the traumatic 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814, which captivated the nation and led to a week of tense negotiations in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Netflix series explores the incident from multiple perspectives, intertwining the stories of the passengers, their families, the Indian government, and the hijackers. Sinha, known for his nuanced handling of socio-political themes, has crafted a gripping narrative that balances historical accuracy with dramatic storytelling.

The performances are the backbone of this series. Vijay Varma stands out as Captain Devi Sharan, bringing a mix of resolve and vulnerability to the role. His portrayal as the pilot is layered, reflecting the immense pressure that the pilot faced during the crisis. Varma’s performance captures the moral dilemmas and the emotional strain of making key decisions.

Dia Mirza has also delivered a compelling performance as a member of the press. Her portrayal is both tender and intense, effectively conveying the anguish, fear, and helplessness of someone balancing the news about the people trapped in an unimaginable situation and the government. She brings a quiet strength to her role, which resonates throughout the series.

On the other hand, Patralekhaa plays one of the flight attendants on board, and her portrayal is marked by a restrained intensity. She has managed to capture the terror and bravery of the cabin crew as they navigated the uncertainty of their fate. Patralekhaa’s performance is subtle yet powerful, highlighting the human side of this traumatic event.

Portraying a senior government official, Kumud Mishra embodies the weight of responsibility with all seriousness. His character is a man torn between duty and conscience, and Mishra portrays this internal conflict with great depth. His performance is one of the highlights of the series.

Back with a bang is Arvind Swami, playing a key government officer involved in the negotiations. He brings a commanding presence to the screen with his character. His performance anchors many of the tense negotiation scenes, adding to the show’s intensity. While the series excels in performances, there are moments where the pacing feels uneven. Some episodes delve deeply into bureaucratic procedures, slowing down the narrative, while others rush through critical moments. Despite this, the emotional depth brought by the cast keeps viewers engaged.

Overall, IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack is a gripping series elevated by its stellar cast. The performances of Vijay Varma, Dia Mirza, Patralekhaa, Kumud Mishra, and Arvind Swami add layers of complexity to an already tense storyline, making it a must-watch for those interested in historical dramas and real-life events.

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