Is 'Don't Look Up' worth looking up? Netflix movie shot in Fall River heads to theaters
FALL RIVER — The stars have aligned for the debut of "Don't Look Up," the Netflix film shot on the Battleship Massachusetts in Fall River last year — and you can see it on the big screen before it hits streaming.
The sci-fi disaster-flick comedy about a planet-killing comet hurtling toward Earth features a whole galaxy of Hollywood's brightest stars. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence are a pair of astronomers trying to warn an apathetic and self-absorbed world that humanity is facing the end of existence. The 21-time Oscar nominee and three-time winner Meryl Streep is a goofball president, who along with her son and chief of staff Jonah Hill, is hilariously indifferent to the danger. Rounding out the A-list cast are names like Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans and more.
Look up here: New trailer drops for 'Don't Look Up' film shot in Fall River, Brockton
“Don’t Look Up” is undoubtedly the biggest-budget feature film, with the biggest stars, ever shot in Fall River. It's being distributed by Netflix, but it’s exclusively in theaters for a two-week window starting Friday, Dec. 10 — including in Fall River.
Catch it on the silver screen at Picture Show at South Coast Marketplace, Showcase Cinemas in Seekonk, Providence Place Cinemas and other area theaters. It’ll make its way into your living room via Netflix on Dec. 24, just in time for Christmas.
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What’s 'Don't Look Up' about? (And no spoilers, please...)
Lawrence plays a graduate student of astronomy studying under Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio) who discovers a new comet — the first problem is, it’s on a collision course with Earth and will wipe out all life when it strikes in six months. The second problem: Nobody cares.
They embark on a tour that leads from the White House, where an oblivious president blows them off, to TV news and beyond, trying to warn anyone who will listen that the end is nigh.
The filmmakers haven’t been shy about the fact that it’s the same problem scientists have faced for decades, warning the public about global climate change, and with the same life-or-death stakes.
But "Don't Look Up" fires at other broad targets as well, like vapid TV news, science skeptics, social media, tech-obsessed billionaires and more.
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Despite the bummer of a plot, expect a lot of laughs. The movie is the latest from writer-director Adam McKay, the improv comedy king who brought us “Step Brothers," "Talladega Nights" and "Anchorman." He's made a turn toward satirical comedy-dramas in recent years with the 2018 Dick Cheney biopic “Vice” and 2015’s “The Big Short,” a scathing look at the 2008 housing bubble that earned McKay an Oscar for Best Screenplay.
In an interview with Netflix, McKay said this film was inspired by laugh-out-loud classics, like “Office Space” and “Idiocracy,” and also “Dr. Strangelove,” the 1964 black comedy about a world-ending nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. And early reviews say this film leans toward the silly.
“Nobody makes me laugh harder in his movies, and nobody makes me think more,” Streep said during an interview with CBS’ “Sunday Morning” about the making of the film.
“Hopefully this movie is something where we get a lot of laughs but we also get a kick in the pants," McKay said.
'Good publicity for the ship': DiCaprio, Streep and Lawrence shoot movie aboard Big Mamie
Where was 'Don't Look Up' shot?
Though “Don’t Look Up” is set in various locales, it was shot right here in Fall River in December 2020, with the Battleship providing the setting for a major political rally scene. Filming took place while the world was suffering the worst of the COVID pandemic, during a terrible winter wave of high cases and deaths, with vaccines still unreleased. Behind-the-scenes shots reveal everyone was masked and being tested frequently.
DiCaprio said making the film during a global pandemic was appropriate.
“Everyone was going through the same thing simultaneously on Earth,” DiCaprio told “Sunday Morning, “and that’s why it connected with this screenplay about the climate crisis — that we’re all going to feel the ramifications of this.”
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Crews also filmed in Brockton; Framingham; Worcester; Union Point, the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station; Fort Point in Boston, near South Station; and at the Wheaton College campus in Norton.
Patrick Norton, the executive director of the Narrows Center for the Arts on Water Street, had a close-up view of the filming — the Battleship is right in the Narrows’ back yard.
“We had a streaming concert that night. This was during the COVID pandemic,” Norton said. "We weren’t doing much, and we could see them out on the Battleship doing their scenes … Meryl Streep doing her speech and whatnot. So it was kind of cool.”
The trailer contains a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of Streep aboard Big Mamie — you’ll have to see the film for yourself to determine how prominently Fall River will be featured, or whether any Massachusetts landscapes will be recognizable.
Is 'Don't Look Up' any good?
Early notices were positive. The critical reviews, released Tuesday, are a bit more mixed. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle raved that "'Don't Look Up' might be the funniest movie of 2021. It’s the most depressing too, and that odd combination makes for a one-of-a-kind experience." The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney called it "a cynical, insufferably smug satire stuffed to the gills with stars."
Still, some people are suggesting Oscar nominations might be in its future — for several of its cavalcade of actors, for director McKay, for Best Picture ... and even for singer Ariana Grande, who has a small role and contributes a song called “Just Look Up.”
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Is this Fall River’s big screen moment?
Fall River has been in the movies a few times before. Forgotten to many is “Below the Hill” (1964), a gritty independent drama about a mill worker written and directed by dramatist and longtime Herald News editorial writer Angus Bailey. To watch this one, you’ll have to check out a two-part upload on YouTube.
“Jungleland” (2019) is the most recent example of Fall River on film, a boxing drama shot in 2018 with several locations immediately recognizable to anyone who’s familiar with the area, from the Venus de Milo restaurant in Swansea to Fall River’s sun-soaked waterfront. This quiet drama is currently streaming on Hulu and Paramount+, or available for rent on other streaming services.
But “Don’t Look Up” easily tops them both in terms of star profile.
It could be one of many more Massachusetts-centric movie productions — earlier in 2021, Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill making the state’s film tax credit permanent. Norton says that tax credit means more productions are drawn to this part of the country, which means work for people in the industry locally.
“I know people in the video and lighting business who are working on [Hocus Pocus 2],” Norton said, of the long-awaited sequel to the 1993 Halloween comedy that’s currently shooting nearby in Rhode Island.
“The good news is, post-pandemic, there’s some movie work," Norton said. "Interestingly enough, with Netflix and some of these other streaming services, it’s brought life back into the film industry, because now they’re not just making these big major motion pictures — there's a whole lot of small stuff being made. Hopefully, Massachusetts and maybe Fall River can take advantage of that.”
Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: 'Don't Look Up' Netflix movie shot in Fall River opening in theaters
