McKay Still Slamming “Don’t Look Up” Critics

Just over three years ago, Adam McKay’s climate change-themed disaster comedy “Don’t Look Up” came out. Although it received decidedly mixed critical reviews at the time, it did something Netflix rarely does: generate cultural conversation.

The polarising film was praised by some for its smart satire; others criticised it as smug and heavy-handed. Both McKay and co-writer David Sirota only fanned the flames online with postings suggesting the haters “didn’t get it”.

Cut to last week, and the film entered discussion again when Sirota implied the L.A. fires were proof critics were wrong about his film. That comment led to plenty of understandable criticism, but it soon drowned out further comments by McKay with The NME.

McKay indicated that while comparing the film to events in L.A. “seems really small and ridiculous,” he used the opportunity to slam critics of the film:

“What was inspiring and energising was the popular response to that movie, not the critics and the cultural gatekeepers who hated it. The estimates of how many people saw that movie – Netflix will never say exactly – but it’s somewhere between 400 million and half a billion.

Viewers all really connected with the idea of being gaslit. Being lied to by their leaders, lied to by their big news media, and being lied to by industries. It was funny – when I realised that was the common connection point, I was like, of course! It’s happening everywhere now with this global neo-liberal economy that we’re all living in. It’s such a cancer, and everyone is feeling it.”

McKay made headlines a few weeks back claiming that “Wicked” is the kind of film that could be banned under the Trump administration in a few years.

“Don’t Look Up” remains Netflix’s second most-watched original film of all time but Netflix itself estimates the film to have had 171 million views.

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