Addendum to my unqualified praise for "Don't Look Up."

[sabotabby]

 After a round of internet arguments (not on DW, elsewhere) I am left to conclude that the two major problems of pop cultural criticism are 1) A Modest Proposal is no longer taught in schools*, and 2) no one on the online left has actually read as much Bertolt Brecht as they claim to, if any at all.

I am happy to elaborate in comments.

* I am generally in favour of replacing Dead White Guy Literature in the compulsory high school canon but A Modest Proposal is my one exception. I am open to replacements and expansions for it, particularly by First Nations, Métis, or Inuit authors. Walking Eagle News is great and I absolutely plan to use it.

Comments

[sabotabby]

What I don't get is that this film is structurally Dr. Strangelove. If anything, it's kinder to its characters, as at least some of them make an attempt and are sympathetic. But in terms of "there is a system that fails because there are obvious loopholes that will result in apocalypse if it's just allowed to roll on, and anyone with the power to close said loopholes is stupid, evil, or both, so the apocalypse happens, but hey, the most villainous character has a backup plan to ensure a small group of elite survivors make it," there is a satirical template and it follows it.

tl;dr I think a lot of critics are pissed it wasn't The Big Short for some reason (I'm sure that has nothing to do with that movie starring mostly white male actors as Wolves You Love To Hate types)

Imagine that! A filmmaker with range.

[kore]

Imagine that! A filmmaker with range.

A lot of the critics who hated this film also hated Vice, which I hadn't heard of and am now at least curious about.

[sabotabby]

I was vaguely aware when it came out but I thought it was a biopic so I avoided it.

[kore]

I just could not watch anything about W or that whole gang for years and years. I would feel so angry it was like I was having an out-of-body experience. The country was already in a bad way (post-Reagan, "centrist Democrats") but W was like the epic landslide into shitsville.

[sabotabby]

So valid.