rant · moment 8 of 22
Adam McKay's Don't Look Up Gets Panned
from #281 - Hewlett Harbor Holiday | The Tim Dillon Show · #281
5 min
Tim discusses the negative reviews of Adam McKay's climate change film Don't Look Up, arguing that McKay has abandoned real comedy for ideological message movies aimed at impressing elites, and riffs on how Hollywood no longer cares if audiences find them funny.
- Adam McKay abandoned comedy to make serious films about climate change because he no longer wants to laugh at white guys in suits.
- Movies built around ideology rather than story tend not to be good, even when the ideology is correct.
- McKay is skilled at comedy about silly white guys because he is one, but he's not equipped to make serious political cinema like Vice or The Big Short showed.
- The Big Short represented the edge of what McKay could do seriously—he needed Margot Robbie in a bathtub to explain credit default swaps.
- Critic Nick Allen writes that Don't Look Up is McKay's worst film, filled with hot air and mediocre jokes masquerading as importance.
- The core problem: a comedy that isn't funny is the last thing you want when making comedy.
- McKay doesn't want to be funny anymore—modern comedy for him is about making wealthy peers say "you're right about that" rather than laugh.
- McKay's target audience is now polite multimillionaires in his circle who will call his work important.
- The ruling class doesn't care if regular people laugh at their movies or like them—that ship has sailed.
- Seth Rogen and his peers genuinely don't care whether the audience enjoys their work anymore.
Adam McKayViceDon't Look UpWill FarrellThe Big ShortMargot RobbieLeonardo DiCaprioSeth RogenMeryl StreepJonah Hill