When PHD candidate Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover a planet killing comet that will impact the Earth in six months they are flown over to The White House to explain the situation to President Orlean (Meryl Streep). Unfortunately for human kind the optics do not look good for her if she breaks this kind of news just before mid term elections so Kate and Randall attempt to break the news to the world via the press. 

What follows is a very humorous black comedy that lampoons the likes of Donald Trump, Elon Musk/Tim Cook, Alex Jones and the manner in which social media engagement drives news and policy. It may not tell you anything particularly new but it should keep you laughing regularly as it skewers each of its targets. 

For me it’s hard to pick which of the storylines was more successful in making me laugh because they all did such a good job. Meryl Streep’s president has her own son Jason (Jonah Hill) as her Chief of Staff who believes his mum is a ‘smoke show’. Michael Chiklis plays the Alex Jones like shock news jockey Dan Pawketty who questions if he can believe Dibiasky because the comet is named after her and Ariana Grande is game for sending up her relationship status and singing a song in a charity awareness gig. Then of course there is the anti scientist themes and the need for both sides to have catchy slogans that can go on baseball caps. 

It is far easier to pick out my favourite performances though which belong to Cate Blanchett and Mark Rylance. Blanchett plays daytime news co-host Brie Evantee who banters with Tyler Perry’s Jack Bremmer trying to keep the news light. She is hilarious as the incredibly over qualified woman who has to flirt and look good to get on air. Whilst Mark Rylance is absolutely genius as the founder of corporate giant Bash. His look is that of Apple CEO Tim Cook and his character is a mash up of Cook, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. He plays the sort of man child unable to understand other peoples emotions who is most offended by someone referring to him as a businessman and his voice is a master stroke. 

Elsewhere there are some brilliant running jokes (the best one involves Jennifer Lawrence’s character and the cost of some snacks) and some brilliant throwaway gags that you might miss if you are laughing too much (fabreze and newspapers come to mind). 

All in all I really enjoyed Don’t Look Up. Writer/director Adam McKay is never subtle. This after all is the man who brought us Anchorman, The Other Guys, The Big Short and Vice. But he absolutely knows how to make you laugh at the ridiculousness of how humankind run our lives.