Before ‘One Battle After Another,’ Leonardo DiCaprio Was a Delightful Mess in This Netflix Satire

We are heading towards Oscars weekendand looking at all the nominees, it’s a stacked card this year. One of the films I have my eye on is One battle after another. Leonardo DiCaprio stars in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 10th film. In total, the film garnered 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Anderson and Best Actor for DiCaprio.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been inundated with Oscar-themed emails offering various streaming suggestions related to the glitzy ceremony. I decided to sit down here and discuss one of DiCaprio’s most underrated films. This is a film that marked the beginning of what I like to call “the Schlubby era of DiCaprio.”

This film features an absolutely rich cast and delivers its message loud and clear. I watched it again last night and still found it very entertaining. But I’m in the minority. You see, the film I’m talking about was a victim of circumstance, as it held a mirror up to society in a terribly difficult time.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m talking about Netflix Don’t look for. It was directed by Adam McKay, and while it’s absolutely a comedy, the disaster satire was released for streaming at the wrong time. If you don’t remember, the film – which was intended as a dire warning about climate change and society’s apathetic response to it – was released for streaming at the height of the pandemic.

Learn more: The Oscars are moving to streaming only on YouTube starting in 2029

Everyone was stuck inside, looking for light, enjoyable entertainment like Ted Lasso. A film about an impending catastrophe that would end the world and its entire population was a tough pill to swallow. Maybe this is still the case? I will return to this thought in a moment.

Needless to say, it was heavily criticized by critics for its subject matter and tone. Don’t Look Up received four Oscar nominations, and even if you think about the lackluster affair that the 2022 Oscars were, it showed the polarizing comedy’s merit. And I’m going to talk about it.

Don’t Look Up follows scientist Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio) and his doctoral student Kate DiBiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) as they attempt to relay the urgency of their discovery of a giant comet heading toward Earth. In approximately six months, an extinction event triggered by the comet impact will wipe out humanity and the planet.

Mindy and DiBiasky face an uphill and unexpected battle, however. Every person in power they speak to, from the media to the President of the United States, ends up downplaying the warning. Instead of focusing on the well-being of the American people, they end up focusing on how the impending disaster can ultimately benefit them.

In return, the media and the government end up lying to the population. Sound familiar?

As dark as this revelation is, the film conveys a kind of gallows humor married to an ironic aesthetic that makes you both laugh and cringe. The ending is bleak, with no real clear lesson aside from the impactful message of looking up and being present. This is all still very relevant almost half a decade later.

A big reason why I find Don’t Look Up more than watchable is the performances of DiCaprio and Lawrence, both breaking out of their proverbial boxes to play unassuming underdogs.

It was the start of DiCaprio’s exploration of underdog characters, in which he played against the glamorous type and showed new levels of range. It is commendable to see an actor of his stature stepping out of his comfort zone – which, in turn, tests the comfort level of the audience listening to him.

He would continue this trend in Killers of the Flower Moon and One Battle After Another.

Lawrence is fantastic as the outspoken student who takes everyone to task, including the president. And then there’s the rest of the excellent cast, which includes (deep breath): Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Melanie Lynskey and Michael Chiklis.

I’m not going to get bogged down in the minutiae of everything that’s happening in today’s world that Don’t Look Up relates to. But it’s worth noting that while this is a film about climate change, the story can apply to a whole host of things, from war in the Middle East to the rise of AI and the proliferation of misinformation to the masses.

Since the film’s premiere on Netflix, other apocalyptic entertainment has emerged, such as To fallSilos, Heaven and the last seasons of The boyswho exploited similar themes more successfully.

You’ll see plenty of recommendations online directing you to Leonardo DiCaprio’s biggest films, with tips for watching them due to his latest Oscar nomination. I could have done that (hell, I almost did, but The Wolf of Wall Street is no longer on Netflix).

Instead, it was the perfect time to revisit Don’t Look Up.

This is a film that doesn’t coddle the audience; instead, it mocks us. We have all, at some point, experienced rapid doses of dopamine that distract us from our daily reality.

Don’t Look Up is a slap in the face, screaming at us to thwart this behavior and take action, and its dark ending further drives this message home. It may have missed the mark when it was initially released, but this comedy has all the makings of a genre classic that only gets better with age.

Learn more: 44 of the Best Movies on Netflix You Should Stream Now