Is "Don't Look Up" Anti-Smartphone?
No, I don’t believe director Adam McKay subscribes to “Ditch Your Smartphone,” BUT…
First off, thanks for those who bought the short story “Two Smartphones Walk Into a Bar.” I really appreciate the support. Hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
Also, housekeeping point. I plan to start sending these emails once a week (Fridays) so there’s more consistency.
Now…
The very first “Ditch Your Smartphone” movie review! Wow, never thought I’d do this but I think this one’s really interesting.
My wife and I just watched “Don’t Look Up.” I was off again on again about whether I wanted to see it. Finally we did.
***There might be some small plot spoilers here if you haven’t seen it but probably not. I definitely won’t give away the ending though.
I was really surprised at the anti-technology themes. Obviously the meaning of art is in the eye of the beholder, but I was picking up some pretty strong anti-tech notes in McKay’s wine.
I respect Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice, Anchorman, Step Brothers) and enjoy his style. But I thought I had “Don’t Look Up” pegged. That it was 100% about climate change.
I think I was wrong. And it’s exciting validation to this humble author that there might be a wave starting to pick up steam against smartphones (and other forms of invasive technology).
Here are four ways “Don’t Look Up” screams “Stop Looking Down!”:
1) The main bad guy is a crazy, checked-out super bizarre tech giant who pretty much owns everything in the world. Like if Google, Facebook and Amazon merged. This tech god is not painted in a good light. He’s a liar and seems to be drugged up on his own technology.
2) Throughout the movie, McKay hits social media hard, and the distractions that come with it. In fact, he hits it so hard that he puts its overuse in an existential light. Like if we don’t wake up, and look up, we might not be around much longer. And this message, to me, was not just about climate change but about what technology is doing to us, too. I couldn’t agree more, Adam.
3) There was a viral video a few years back called “Look Up.” In “Don’t Look Up” I was picking up on an offhanded reference to this video and the way the phrase “Look Up” was connected to the plot. Maybe it’s a stretch, but even if McKay wasn’t trying to give a nod to that video, the message of looking up to see what’s going on around you—especially threats to mankind’s way of life—definitely has a double meaning that could apply to smartphones.
4) “Don’t Look Up” reminded me a lot of the excellent movie “Idiocracy” by Office Space creator Mike Judge. Idiocracy is about a guy and girl who are cryogenically frozen and wake up in the future. People are stupid. They’re doing stupid things. And society has become a broken cesspool of stupidity. “Don’t Look Up,” I thought, touched on some of those same themes, but more in the way technology is making us stupid.
This is my take. I’d love to hear what you think. Am I reading into it too much? I know I’m planning on watching a couple interviews with McKay to see if he talks about any of this.
In the end, “Don’t Look Up” is thought-provoking and well worth watching. And I’m filing it under “Anti-smartphone movies.”
Further reading/viewing:
Don’t know if this is the exact “Look Up” video I was thinking of, but it has 62 million views and gets the same message across.
Excellent book on all of this. “The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr.
A must watch in the age of smartphones. Idiocracy!