{"id":2212,"date":"2026-06-15T19:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2212"},"modified":"2026-06-15T19:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:06:13","slug":"adam-mckay-on-producing-the-climate-documentary-just-look-up-and-why-the-democrats-are-corrupt-from-head-to-toe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2212","title":{"rendered":"Adam McKay on Producing the Climate Documentary \u2018Just Look Up\u2019 and Why the Democrats are \u2018Corrupt From Head to Toe\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nAdam McKay is a big fan of Climate Defiance\u2019s no holds barred approach to shaming fossil fuel companies and the corporations and politicians who support them. The non-profit is known for its provocative protests, which include everything from unfurling a banner stating \u201cEat Shit, Darren\u201d at an event honoring\u00a0Exxon\u00a0CEO\u00a0Darren Woods\u00a0to disrupting the White House Correspondents Dinner to protest the Biden administration\u2019s approval of oil and gas leases.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cPeople tend to want to use the rules of advertising and marketing in their activism, and the truth of the matter is advertising, propaganda, misinformation is what caused this problem,\u201d says McKay, the director of \u201cStep Brothers\u201d and \u201cAnchorman.\u201d \u201cThis is the only time in the four and a half billion year history of Earth that we have seen this rate of warming. It\u2019s a bomb going off. The idea of using manipulative marketing language to describe something so threatening is insane. It would be like having a Heimlich maneuver poster in a restaurant, but having the person showing you how to do it be a sexy lady in a bikini.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMcKay decided to lend his name to \u201cJust Look Up,\u201d a new v\u00e9rit\u00e9documentary about the work of Climate Defiance and its founder Michael Greenberg after its co-director Emma Wall asked him to view an early cut of the film. Wall is married to Jeremy Strong, who appeared in McKay\u2019s \u201cThe Big Short,\u201d and the director agreed to become a producer on the film. \u201cJust Look Up,\u201d which is co-directed by Betsy Hershey and follows the activists over the course of several months, opened at the Tribeca Festival. McKay admired how Greenberg, who has devoted his life to drawing attention to the climate crisis, has used every platform at his disposal to magnify the stakes of global warming.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey go right to the corrupt people that are selling out billions of human beings for donor checks from oil companies and the banks that fund the oil companies,\u201d McKay says. \u201cI love how Climate Defiance confronts them, eye to eye as human beings, as opposed to allowing the discourse around the climate collapse to exist as a campaign issue, or something to compromise over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMcKay, who publicly left the Democratic Party in 2024 after the presidential election, argues that politicians on both sides of the aisle are to blame for the environmental disaster taking place. He\u2019s not feeling any more charitable about the Democrats, who he previously faulted for \u201cnever mentioning public healthcare [in the presidential campaign] & embracing fracking, the Cheneys & a yr long slaughter of children in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Democratic Party can be every bit as much destructive on the climate as the Republican Party,\u201d he says. \u201cIt really all boils down to money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeyond climate, McKay says he\u2019s disappointed with how the Democrats have reacted to Donald Trump\u2018s return to power.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve seen better fake opponents in professional wrestling, or that team that plays the Harlem Globetrotters, the Washington Generals. They do a better job of pretending to be opposition than the Democrats do,\u201d McKay says. \u201cI\u2019ve almost noticed that Democrats don\u2019t even really pretend to be opposition any more. The party is totally overrun with dark money. It\u2019s corrupt from head to toe. It\u2019s utterly broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMcKay isn\u2019t the only big name director to join the producing team of \u201cJust Look Up.\u201d Wall also enlisted Joshua Oppenheimer, the Oscar-nominated documentarian behind \u201cThe Act of Killing.\u201d Like McKay, Oppenheimer was moved by Greenberg and his fellow activists. They reminded him of his experience as a young man working with Act Up during the height of the AIDS crisis. <\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cThis film shows what resistance looks like and how compelling it is, how courageous it is, and how human it is,\u201d Oppenheimer says. \u201cI see it as an antidote to the sense that it\u2019s become uncool or cringe to participate in doing the very thing we need to to save ourselves as a species and as a democratic society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Oppenheimer also praises \u201cJust Look Up\u201d for not shying away from documenting the cost of that activism, as Greenberg finds himself struggling to balance a romantic and social life while waging an all-consuming campaign.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt shows how hard it is to not burn out,\u201d Oppenheimer notes. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a portrait of a kind of resistance we need. It\u2019s also a handbook for how you try to survive and build a meaningful life doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe title of the documentary, \u201cJust Look Up,\u201d is a nod to \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up,\u201d a 2021 satire that McKay wrote and directed about a looming ecological disaster and the establishment\u2019s chaotic and inept attempts to save the world. The film premiered on Netflix and starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, two of the biggest movie stars in the world. Yet McKay wonders if it would get produced in the current political climate.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt definitely would be a lot harder to make right now, no question,\u201d McKay says. \u201cNetflix is really good with climate. They\u2019re the one studio or streamer that isn\u2019t afraid of the issue. But even when I wrote the script, everyone passed on it, except Netflix.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn the years since \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up\u201d debuted, the political winds have shifted again. Entertainment companies like Disney and Paramount have settled lawsuits with Trump and moguls like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and David Ellison have curried favor with the president. Is McKay surprised that industries that were once seen as liberal have changed their stripes?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHollywood\u2019s response to Trump is a byproduct of the market-based corporate takeover of America,\u201d McKay says. \u201cCulture and politics have fused completely. If you work at one of these studios or streamers, your company first and foremost cares about their stock valuation. If you criticize Trump publicly, he could penalize your company. That\u2019s created an atmosphere of silence.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Adam McKay and Joshua Oppenheimer talk about producing ‘Just Look Up,’ climate change and why the Democrats have failed to stand up to Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1880,238,1881],"class_list":["post-2212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-adam-mckay","tag-donald-trump","tag-just-look-up"],"yoast_head":"\nAdam McKay on Producing the Climate Documentary \u2018Just Look Up\u2019 and Why the Democrats are \u2018Corrupt From Head to Toe\u2019 - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2212\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adam McKay on Producing the Climate Documentary \u2018Just Look Up\u2019 and Why the Democrats are \u2018Corrupt From Head to Toe\u2019 - 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