He should probably just make documentaries tbh, it’s clear he just wants people to care about certain issues, but has convinced himself that making sloppy satires is the way to do it
That’s what I think is the silliest thing about this — he so clearly also cares about being a Big Important Filmmaker too. I’m sure Adam McKay cares deeply about the climate crisis. But it’s like: why are you attacking critics online? A shitload of people are watching and talking about your climate change movie, so shouldn’t that be Mission Accomplished? Because the passion with which he’s defending his movie — “because the message is so important, not because of my giant ego” — suggests he should probably stop making movies and devote the rest of his life to the climate crisis. But no, he’ll be back in 3-4 years with another star-studded film about something completely different.
Climate change is just his issue of the day. With Vice it was the Iraq War and with The Big Short it was the financial crisis. In a few years he will make one about the health care system and accuse everyone who doesn't like it as being in the pocket of big pharma.
It’s actually a little insulting to keep insisting this is a film of advocacy for the climate crisis. The climate crisis is not a meteor from outer space, it has causation and modern contributors. The villains of the climate crisis are not dumb, in fact they created the studies that discovered that this is man made from the industrial revolution and fossil fuels. They are now fueling disinformation and skepticism because there isn’t any immediate impact that will destroy everyone, the rich are currently just fine from its effects and their families won’t feel much impact for generations, if at all. It’s frankly insulting to claim this film is some kind of direct analogy to the true struggle of those of us who are fighting climate change.
I thought when the black dude got surrounded by the fbi and started explaining skin pigmentation that was a riff of degrasse
Climate change is going to be felt most strongly by people in developing nations that contributed the least to the carbon emissions. The entire Eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico are in big trouble, but they will just end up bailing out a bunch of people and move inland. It is a lot like the pandemic, where the people at much lower risk are actually propagating the illness and killing the most vulnerable.
And you also have the fact that the United States had an almost immediate solution in the movie but chose not to use it, where there are no easy solutions to climate change other then to go back to a pre-industrial society, which Adam McKay would not enjoy much.
If I have some free time tomorrow after lunch I’m gonna feel the magnitude of climate change in my bones for a bit. I wanna do my part
McKay's first four movies (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, The Other Guys) are all comedy classics of the 21st century to me. Even though I liked this movie, it's been a shame to watch him jump headfirst into the typical "I'm serious now" thing that comedy people do sometimes
I don't know why but Step Brothers never clicked for me the way The Other Guys, Anchorman, and Talladega Nights did. Also the shit editing makes perfect sense, the editor for this (along with BIg Short and Vice) for Natural Born Killers. And is actually credited as one of the editors for The New World, The Tree of Life, and Song to Song. Which is intriguing to think about because weird editing works for Malick but not a "straight" film like this.
The only memorable things in this will be the "I fucking love fingerling potatoes" and that I laughed at the heartwarming coffee grinding conversation because I noticed in an earlier scene that Leo had the same coffee grinder I do
The “Ew, this French guy is gay” storyline in “Talledega Nights” didn’t age well, but the other stuff is funny.