Leonardo DiCaprio ruined his almost 10-year long acting streak, all thanks to one of his latest films.
You could probably guess which movie I'm talking about - released on Netflix in 2021, it damaged the American actor's near-flawless reputation on Rotten Tomatoes, with a decade of top-tier films seemingly ruined as a result.
The film in question is Don't Look Up, and its star-studded cast couldn't save it from the scathing ratings of critics.
Starring the likes of Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Timothée Chalamet among others, Don't Look Up wasn't received well by critics and viewers alike.
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DiCaprio plays Dr Randall Mindy, an astronomy professor who discovers there is a comet headed towards Earth, with the help of astronomy grad student Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence).
They then go on a media tour of the world, and nobody really seems to care about the issue - a poignant reflection on modern day society.
The film has been praised for its message about ignoring climate change, but as a product of cinema, reviews have been divided, to say the least.
On Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates reviews to give viewers a bit of an overall consensus, the film has a fairly mediocre critics’ score of 56 percent – based on a total of 232 reviews.
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This, therefore, damaged DiCaprio's near-perfect reputation on the rating site.
As ComicBook.com reports, this marks the first ‘rotten’ film that DiCaprio has starred in since Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby back in 2013, which had a 48 percent rating.
The years in between have seen some of DiCaprio’s best work, with 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street (79 percent), 2015 flick The Revenant (78 percent), and Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood in 2019 (85 percent) - all certified ‘fresh’ by the site.
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That eight-year winning streak only really equates to three films, but there’s no denying that they’re all big’uns.
Don’t Look Up, meanwhile, hasn’t been met with such critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone reviewer David Frear concluding: “Don't Look Up is a blunt instrument in lieu of a sharp razor, and while McKay may believe that we're long past subtlety, it doesn't mean that one man's wake-up-sheeple howl into the abyss is funny, or insightful, or even watchable.”
James Berardinelli from ReelViews wrote: “Despite a to-die-for cast and a seemingly can't-miss premise, Don't Look Up is a failure on too many levels and, although the viewing numbers may satisfy Netflix, it's a shock to see such a high-profile film self-destruct.”
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That said, not all the critic reviews were negative, with Us Weekly’s Mara Reinstein referring to the film as ‘so-sharp-it-hurts satire that skewers our current state of politics, technology and celebrity culture within the context of an asteroid headed to Earth’.
Anton Bitel from Sight & Sound also said the ‘broad, crass, scattergun comedy’ is one that ‘fairly reflects the age of distraction being so grimly targeted’, while Film Inquiry’s Stephanie Archer wrote: “Don't Look Up finds deeper meaning and a grander aesthetic that not only challenges the conversation but demands action - before it's too late.
"There is no mistaking that this is one of the best films of the year."
I guess you'll just have to decide for yourself by watching the film on Netflix now.
Topics: Leonardo DiCaprio, Netflix, Rotten Tomatoes, Film
Joshua Nair